I LI BRARY OF CONGRESS. I 

<j& I ^ / /* / a 

^UNITED STATES~OF AMERICA.! 




OF 




f SI UlS&S. 



THE 



BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

HENRY Lr WILLIAMS, Je. 

Wxi\ %u iUgant Illustrations, 

ENGKAVED BY 

JOHN W. ORR. 

FOURTH EDITION. 







NEW TORE:: 
JAMES O'KANE, 484 BROADWAY. 

SAN FRANCISCO : H. H. BANCROFT & CO. 
MDCCOLXVII. 



3S5T] 

mi 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, 

By JAMES O'KANE, 

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States for the 

Southern District of New York. 



9 

PREFACE 



Many and many are the books which are set before 
the eyes of youth, day after day, to show examples in 
man of the great qualities which have lifted one human 
being over others. The history of our times, of that of 
civilized heathens, of savage pagans, and of total unbe- 
lievers in any creed at all, has been searched over and 
over again to find for display such men as Philip and 
Alexander of Macedon, Xerxes, Caesar, Leonidas, Wil- 
liam the Conqueror, Charles the Great, and the Twelfth 
of that name but of another realm, Napoleon, and the 
rest whose titles will occur as readily to all. 

They are not subjects to be held up for imitation. 
Great gifts are dross when applied wrongly, for a 
ploughshare of iron, a tool of steel, are far better than if 
made of gold or diamonds. 

Who will believe that the little drops which we have 
drawn from the Fount of all wisdom, power, and love, 
— that for which men that are men ever thirst, — will 
sparkle less brightly, obscured though they have been 
by an humble pen, than the gouts of crime-spilt blood, 
on the blade of those who lived and fought for them- 
selves too often, for their land seldom, for their fellow- 
man, their neighbor, as Christ distinguishes it, less 
often still. 

For themselves. Yes ; can he be happy who misuses 
all the boons which only the Almighty and the Ever-gen- 
erous could bestow, which ungrateful man alone can mal- 
adm mister % He puts himself upon a throne, they bow 
and kneel around him, and he lets the lie go unchecked 
which attributes to him power over earth and sea. 

For their land. This is more, for then they say, they 
may think it, that it is their mother and they cannot 



PREFACE 



show to her what thankless children they are, hut as what 
do they dare to parade themselves under heaven ? They 
defend that mother, live for her, give their whole mind 
for her (that mind which is as surely of God as the 
body is of the dust), and die for her. They forget the 
Father, who always is by, is around them, while the 
mother, like the Son, " is not with them always." 

For their neighbor. This over and above the rest. 

Far above, very far above this, that, and the other, is 
the living and dying in God. The heroes named were 
instruments of His, but they are heavy mallets or pierc- 
ing nails, cups of gall or the cruel sword, while the true 
heroes are the types which are blessed by being let print 
the Living Word. 

To these are devoted the pages that follow. All that 
is strong, pure and good upon them is the Bible; all that 
is weak, tarnishing and faulty — because humanly 
wrought — is the man's. As he has endeavored to place 
the tiny rills of the Source in confines which shall make 
their beauty all the more prominent, instead of foolish- 
ly and wrongly trying to upraise banks to overshadow 
them, so he hopes the unutterable brightness of the gems 
will prevent the setting being in the least noticed. 

As fragments of a rock may be be formed into a 
new mass which will not resemble the first in shape, 
and will yet have in little most of its benefits, so those 
leaves, taken tenderly and reverently from the Holy 
"Writings, are hopefully sent forth. 

Eecollecting he was once a boy, and that he is to the 
best of his ability a lover of religion while no lover of dis- 
putes on tenets, clearly not to be debated with youth, the 
author gives his lines good-bye, and trusts his desire to 
please will find at least one "welcome" — that of the 
present reader. 

II. L. W., Jr. 






§mknt$. 



Joseph, 

Moses, 

Joshua, 

Gideon, 

Samson, 

Samuel, 

David, 

Solomon, 

Hezekiah, - 

Elijah, 

Elisha, 

Mordecai, 

Daniel, 

Tobias, 

Judas Maccabeus, 



7 
35 

58 
75 
85 
114 
125 
154 
163 
187 
210 
233 
252 
283 
298 



I. Vignette— David and Goliath, 

II. Moses Defending the Daughters of Ruel. 

III. The Ark Passing Through the Jordan. 

IV. Samson Destroying the Temple of the Philistine* 
V. The Wise Decree of King Solomon. 

VI. Daniel in the Lions' Den. 



THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 



JOSEPH. 

Jacob, (the son of Isaac, who was son of Abraham,who was 
descendent of Shem, son of Noah, the good man who was 
saved from the deluge) had wandered from the former 
living-place of the race of God's chosen people, and dwelt 
in the Land of Canaan, where he was surrounded by 
strange people. But he had great property in what was 
the real wealth in those early days : that is cattle of all 
kinds. His family was numerous, for he had twelve sons 
well grown up. Jacob, or Israel, as God said he should be 
called, loved Joseph, more than any other of his sons, be- 
cause Joseph's mother was the Rachel whom he had labor- 
ed so hard to win for wife, and whom he had so loved that 
his fourteen year's service for her seemed but a little while 
he was waiting. As a token of his especial favor to this 
child of his old age, he had made for him a coat of many 
colors ; the others, busy in farming and herding and living 
simply, dressed as plainly as well might be in sheepskins 
and coarse homespun. The other sons could not be pleased 
with this setting up of a person, a little boy compared to 
them, above them all, (for their father made the youth an 
overseer to them also), and they vented their disfavor in 
many ways. 

If there was a sheep, goat or a cow strayed, the brothers 
always gave to Joseph (who was about sixteen or seven- 
teen), the trouble of going to seek them, perhaps wishing 



8 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

he would fall in with wild beasts, who prowled around the 
pasturages, and be harmed ; if there was a well dried up, 
it was always Joseph, under some pretext, who was lower- 
ed into it to find out whether some stone had not turned 
awaji or blocked up the spring, and, perhaps, those who 
made him do this, would not have been ill-pleased if the 
bad air in the pit had poisoned him ; and they hated him at 
last so deeply that they would hardly let him be at all near 
them, and never shared with him the wild fruit found in 
their going out and coming in with their herds and flocks. 
And if they were singing or laughing or playing on a reed, 
and saw his bright clothes coming near them, they would 
stop in what they were doing, for fear he should have a lit- 
tle share of their enjoyment. They would not answer ex- 
cept roughly his most civil questions, and they were as 
much estranged from him as they could make themselves. 

The pure sky of the East, and the gentleness of a shep- 
herd's life make most men of a musing turn. Joseph, like 
others, young as he was, and especially because he was re- 
fused admission to his brother's sports, was wont to spend 
the hours between his meal-times and his housing of sheep, 
in resting in the shade, either viewing the landscape, 
watching the bees taking the honey from the flowers under 
the very noses of the browsing lambs, and flying off to 
their home in some old cedar tree's hollow, or the wild 
pigeons dotting the blue heavens or whirling around under 
the clouds. The sounds were few, and they were too low 
or came from too great a distance to trouble his half-slum- 
bers ; the rustling gliding of a snake over the leaves fallen 
from a wild vine, the lowing of cattle, the caw of the crow 
away off in a scarcely visible sycamore. Once in a while, 
though, Joseph was roused to action by the bleating of a 
terrified ewe, whose lambs were in danger from an asp or a 
viper, and, springing to his feet, he would rush to the res- 



JOSEPH. 9 

cue with his staff, and free the poor shivering animals from 
their terror ; or, perhaps, he would hurl stones into a 
thicket to make sure that it was a fox and not a shadow 
only that had attracted his eyes. But, steeped in semi- 
sleep he was half tho time of his loneliness. Not idle, 
though ; his mind was w ondering at the Creators marvels, 
— the things of earth around him, the things of heaven 
above. 

In those distant days, there were no good books for man 
to reach God by, and God himself spoke to those He loved 
by his angels or by dreams. One day, Joseph went over 
to his brothers, and having begged their attention, for he 
wished the information he might expect from those who 
were so much older than himself. 

" I fancied," he said, " dear brothers, that we were all har- 
vesting in the wheatfield, and had each of us made our 
sheaf a piece, which were lying on the stubble ground 
when, all of a sudden, my bundle stood up, and yours stood 
up, too, but they all bowed down to mine." 

" What, child," said Reuben the eldest, " you reign over 
us?" 

" Do you dream of dominion over us ?" echoed Judah 
fiercely. " Get you back to your sheep ; let them bow 
down to you first !" 

And even Naphtali, the gentle, and little Benjamin, the 
youngest of all, had no words of kindness to the youth 
they thought so presumptuous. They were all the harsher 
and more unkind after this to the dreamer. Time passed, 
when soon he again had a vision, and, terrified almost at so 
awfully grand a one, he hastened to tell it to his compan- 
ions, who, somewhat alarmed, were enraged at him. 

" In my dream," said he, ' l the sun, moon, and the eleven 
brightest stars bowed down to me !" 



10 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

This he told to his old father as well as his brethren, 
and Israel was angry at him and rebuked him, 

" Boy, think you I, your mother and your brothers, are 
to be servants of yours ? Your dreams are too presump- 
tuous." 

But, in spite of all, the old man remembered the striking 
dreams, and thought of them often, while the others envied 
their brother. Time was before long that the men were all 
gone to Shechem, bearing the grain for the feeding of the 
flocks grazing there, and Israel was anxious about them. 
So he called Joseph to him and ordered him to go and see 
if nothing had happened to either the animals or the herds- 
men, and hasten back with the news. Joseph drew his 
belt tighter, took his staff, saw that his goatskin boots were 
fastened well on his legs to guard against the point of 
stones, the entrance of the hot sand, the scratch of poison- 
ous grasses, or the bites of insects or serpents, and, put- 
ting a piece of bread in the bosom of his gay coat, and 
stringing his skin bottle by his side, he started from Hebron 
Valley, and reached Shechem. There was not a single 
herdsman or a sheep to be found far or near within sight. 
No answer came to his calls, except the mocking calls of 
ravens or the howls of beasts disappointed in the depart- 
ure of their prey, and it was in vain that he ran up on the 
hill-tops, or down into the hollows. 

Fortunately in his searches, he met a man, who, after 
the " Peace to you," asked what or whom was he seeking. 

" I am looking for my brothers, sir," answered Joseph. 
" Have you seen them ? They have my father's flocks in 
their charge and ought to have been in this place." 

" The herdsmen were here," said the stranger, " and went 
away. I heard one of them saying something about: l Let 
us go to Dothan.' No doubt, it is there they have gone 



JOSEPH. 1 1 

with their droves. You'll find it about ten miles further 
on." 

Thanking him, Joseph, tired as he was, (for he had come 
nearly sixty or seventy miles), went instantly to the named 
place, where, indeed, were those he sought. 

They were all keensighted, and the air was so clear that 
they saw him when he was far beyond ear-shot and easily 
distinguished him by his gay-hued garment. 

"It is Joseph coming," said one. 

" Yes, as the Lord liveth, here is the dreamer I" sneered 
another. 

" How long are we going to let him go his way, boasting 
over us men, brothers. Here's a chance for us," said Levi 
in hate. 

" Yes, now is the time," said Simeon, " let's catch him and 
kill him. We can throw him into some cave, some dried 
up well or a crevice in the ground, and when we are asked 
about him at home, it will be easy to say : some wild beast or 
other must have eaten him." 

" And then we'll see," said Levi, sneering again, " what 
will become of his dreams." 

As soon, then, as Joseph came unsuspectingly up to them, 
a smile of pleasure at having found them covering his face, 
they all sprang on him, wrenched away his stick and might 
have robbed him of life then and there, only Reuben struck 
off the fierce hands and freed Joseph from them. 

" No Judah, no, Levi, Simeon and Dan, no, all of you ; 
what shall we gain by killing him outright ? Don't let us 
do that — we want none of our hands stained with his blood 
— he's our father's child always, whatever he may have 
done. Here's a pit here, deep enough for it to be impos- 
sible for anybody, once in, to scramble out of it ; let us 
throw him down into it. And there he will die, and nono 
of us can be said to have laid hand on him." 



12 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

Reuben was kind-hearted and cool-headed from his years, 
and he thought he would have a chance to pull up Joseph 
from the hole in the earth as soon as the others should be 
gone. All agreed to this new plan ; as if the crime of let- 
ting a man die by starvation and thirst was less than the 
actual slaying him. And after stripping him of the envied 
coat of many colors for a purpose, they dropped him into 
the deep well-hole, the bottom of which was dried up. On 
seeing this done, unable to bear Joseph's appeals and re- 
proaches, Reuben made excuses that he must tend his di- 
vision of the animals, and hurried off to them in a distant 
part of the plain. The rest, hardened in heart, turned a 
deaf ear to the voice from the well, and sat down by it 
under the trees, which grew taller here from its being the 
receptacle of the waters of the vales, to eat their bread and 
cold meat. 

While eating, all of a sudden, the gentle breeze stealing 
over the plain and playing with leaves of the tree-tops 
over their heads, brought a perfume which was sweeter 
than the scent it always bore of wild flowers and grass. 
They descried in the distance a whole train of camels, bear- 
ing strapped on their sides bales of goods. It was a party 
of Midianite merchants who were bringing myrrh, balm, 
spices, and gums out of the Land of Gilead, for the trade 
of Egypt. The caravan came towards the well, thinking to 
find water there, especially as they saw the men taking 
their meal under the trees. As they approached, Judah 
said : 

" Brothers, it is little we gain by having our brother die 
and spilling his blood, to cry out against us some day. He 
is our father's child, as Reuben said, whatever presumption 
and disrespect he may have had for us, his elders. Let us 
sell him to those traders coming hither." 

All agreed, and they let down a wild vine and harled 



JOSEPH. 13 

Joseph out of the hole. As soon as the party came up, and 
the usual inquiries as to the weather, the state of water, 
the news as to robbers, had been exchanged, the sons of 
Israel proposed the sale of Joseph, who was bought by 
the merchants at last for twenty pieces of silver. And so, 
surrounded by strangers, the youth was carried away to re- 
mote Egypt, his back to his father and brothers. At the 
departure of the flocks, for home, Reuben hurried back to 
the pit to release his brother, but, of course, he could not 
see him. In grief, he hastened to his companions, tearing 
his clothes and mourning. 

" The child is no more !" he cried. " Where shall I go, 
wretch that I am? Why did I, old enough not only to have 
known better, but to have done better, why did I let you 
do such an evil act. ,, 

On the way, they killed a poor little kid, dipped the coat 
in the blood, and sent some of the herdsmen on before with 
it to tell the lie that they had found it, and were not sure 
but that it was Joseph's. _ 

Old Israel knew it only too well, and, at sight of it, sobbed 
out : " It is, it is my dear boy's. Some evil beast has eaten 
him. Joseph is torn to pieces." 

In spite of all his family could do, the old man mourned 
for the lost youth many and many a day, and would not be 
comforted. While his father was thus shedding tears out 
of his aged eyes for him, the traders had brought Joseph 
into Egypt, where they sold him to a captain in the guards 
of King Pharaoh, of the name of Potiphar. He was first a 
servant. 

Instead of uselessly sorrowing, Joseph, though his heart 
was far away in Canaan, applied all his mind and strength 
to doing his duty in his new life. The only time, indeed, 
that he did not work for his master was that given to sleep, 
and to that other and far, far greater Master, the Lord of 



14 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

his life, who had preserved him, and who now heard his 
pra} 7 ers. By his dilligence and his attention, therefore, the 
young servant came to be much liked by his master, and 
gradually advancing in station as well as in esteem, he was 
presently made steward of the whole household, and next 
to the owner over all things, living and inaminate, about the 
family. For the sake of Joseph, heaven was kind to his 
master, and every matter concerning the good and welfare 
of the captain, was attended by success : on the officer's 
house and ground the sun seemed to shine more brightly 
and yet more kindly. Joseph could never thank heaven suf- 
ficiently for blessing him, and he prayed constantly that 
God would be good as well to those who deserved His kind- 
ness more than he : his old father, his sisters and brothers, 
far, far away, perhaps grieving over him buried alive in the 
foreign land. 

In the Egyptian's house, Joseph grew up till he was a 
man, finely formed and handsome. The captain's wife one 
day tried to induce him to do wrong, but Joseph would not 
listen to her temptations, except to respectfully show her 
what a depth of guilt would be in his wronging the master 
who showed him so much favor. But she was too evil to 
be easily repulsed, and day after day, time and again, she 
persecuted the servant with her entreaties and threats. 
But, always, he was sustained by God, and he assured her 
that her earnestness was in vain ; he would never stain his 
honor, disgrace his name, or do evil against his master, 
though none should see the crime save the All-seer. An- 
gered against him, the shameful woman laid a plot against 
him, and, as her word was believed in much rather than a 
slave's, the husband was also enraged. By power of his 
station among Pharaoh's officers, he had the Hebrew thrown 
into the prison for the prisoners of the King. 

Still again, Joseph's Friend remembered him, and in His 



JOSEPH. 15 

loving mercy, made the keeper of the prison-house show 
him favor. When things thus wore the worst look, the ac- 
cused was helped and his load lightened. Faithful here as 
when free, he so well conducted himself, that the warden 
let him have charge of the jail, and scarcely gave any at- 
tention to it himself. Joseph had the keys, he visited the 
cells' gave out the food, saw to the desperate, the mourn- 
ing and the sick. Here again, had he much to thank hea- 
ven for, and that he did so, is to believed. 

During this while, one day, King Pharoah, whose dainty 
palate had been offended by the bread and meats served up 
being burnt and ill-cooked, flew into a passion, and had the 
chief baker and chief butler thrown into the prison, where 
Joseph w T as keeping the keys. As they were important 
prisoners, and as the king had ordered them to be particu- 
larly guarded, the keeper made Joseph attend to them more 
than to the others of lessor note. They were there for 
some time, served by him. 

One night, it happened that both the butler and the 
baker had a dream, which so affected both of them, that 
when Joseph opened their cell in the morning, he found 
them sad and anxious, so much so that he asked them what 
it was ailed them. 

" It is a simple reason. We Egyptians believe that 
dreams are sent by our gods to give warning of griefs or 
promise of joys to their worshippers. We have each had 
a vision during the night, and, locked up here, how can we 
ask the priests of Isis and Osiris to explain them ?" 

"lama Hebrew," said Joseph, " we believe in dreams, 
too, though only one God is all that we recognize. But 
tell me what you saw when sleep was on your eyes. Even 
I may be aided by heaven to relieve your troubled hearts.'' 
And, before they could eat their breakfasts, with their 
new anxiety, they opened themselves to the turnkey. The 
chief butler first, in this wise : 



1G THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

" I was asleep. I thought I was looking at a grapevine 
before me, that divided into three boughs. While I gazed, 
it leaved, budded and blossomed, and the grapes not only 
formed but ripened in rich clusters. Pharaoh's cup was in 
my hand, and I picked the grapes and squeezed the juice 
into the cup, which I gave to the king's hands." 

" The meaning of your dream," said Joseph, " was this ■ 
the three branches that the vine split into are so many 
days, by which time King Pharaoh shall relent and not only 
pardon you but make you his cup-bearer just the same as 
ever. Now, sir, think of me when what I tell you shall 
come to pass, be kind to me, I pray you, and beg Pharaoh 
to release me, too, from this prison house. You may ask 
the favour all the more easily because I am a man stolen 
when young from my country and under bar and bolt now 
without having done wrong." 

When the chief baker saw how pleased his companion in 
captivity was at this happy promise in his dream, he was 
eager to have his unraveled and he told his to Joseph. 

" In my dream, I had three white baskets woven of 
blanched Nile reeds on my head. In the top one was all 
kinds of baked meats for the royal table, but the birds flew 
around me and ate them all up out of the basket." 

" That means," said Joseph, " that you are doomed. The 
three baskets were so many days, on the last of which your 
royal master shall have you dragged from here to be hanged 
on a tree, where the birds of the air shall flock around to 
eat your flesh from your bones." 

Joseph spoke only too true, for, on the third day from 
that, which was Pharaoh's birth-day, when all was banquet- 
ting and merry making, the ruler sent to have the butler 
restored to his former station, for he found he had wronged 
him, and the man did become his cup-bearer once again ; 
but as for the cook, he was hanged, as Joseph had told hiii 



JOSEPH. 17 

his dream had forewarned. In spite of his renewal of favor 
(or, perhaps, on that very account, for it is often easier to 
forget benefits than evil done one), the butler did not have a 
second thought of Joseph, still in prison. 

Two whole years went, over the heads of all from the 
king on his throne to the poor drawer of water on the 
rivers. Joseph was patiently enduring his unchanged life. 
At the end of that time, Pharaoh was troubled with two 
dreams in succession which highly impressed him. 

The first was that he fancied himself on the banks of a 
river, out of whose waters came seven cattle, which began 
to feed on the meadows by the water-side. Presently, as 
many cattle, but lean, hungry-looking ones, came from the 
stream also and ate up the seven fat ones, yet were no bet- 
ter looking than before. Pharaoh awoke, but on falling 
asleep once more, he dreamed again : on one stalk, seven 
ears of corn grew out, rich, and large ; they were still flour- 
ishing, when seven thin, mildewed, bug-eaten, smutted ears 
sprang out also and absorbed the seven good ones, and 
still they were thin and wasted. 

In the morning after this, the monarch was very uneasy, 
and he could not rest until he had sent for all the learned 
men and magicians in Egypt, of whom he demanded a clear- 
ing up of his dream. But that was something none of them 
could do. While they were all in doubt, the chief butler 
said to his master : " king, I remember how one day, two 
twelvemonths since, I was faulty towards your majesty. 
King Pharaoh was wroth against me and had me shut up 
with the chief cook, in the prison house of the captain of 
the guards. The baker and I both had a dream, aud, hap- 
pening to tell it to a young Hebrew captive who was there, 
this foreigner told us what our visions were fore-runners of. 
And sure enough, what he foretold, did come to pass: the 
baker was punished ; I, thanks to your majesty's justice, 



18 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

was restored to my place on your birthday, of which be 
diere many and many !" 

iStill uneasy about his dreams, the king instantly sent for 
the imprisoned interpreter. Joseph was released, hastily 
given a dress, and, as soon as he had cared for himself so as 
to appear becomingly, he was led in to the royal presence, 
in the throne-room, rich with carvings of man-bulls and 
winged lions, and stained pillars : 

" I have dreamed a double dream," said the king ; " there 
are none who can disclose its secret to me. I have been 
told that you can interpret such things : is that true ?" 

" That is something not at my command," answered 
Joseph. " My God is alone the Perfection of Wisdom. I 
can only say ; may He make me a messenger of good words 
to your majesty." 

The king repeated his dreams, and added : " If you can 
unfold these, you are wiser than any and all the magicians 
and wise men throughout my realm, and my kingdom en- 
closes the most learned of all nations." 

Joseph stood for a moment silent. All was hushed 
around except the faint breathing, the low sound of the 
steps of the guards in the corridors, and the rustle ol 
Pharaoh's robe as he leaned forward on his elbow to hear. 
Joseph looked out of the. window, deep in the thick wall, 
not on the temple of the heathen gods, no, his glance rose 
from the winged globes and strange figures of the stranger 
birds and beasts of that nrvsterious land, to the sky, bril- 
liant with the ever bright star of day. When he brought 
his gaze back again, it was calm with a mighty knowledge 
and an immense joy that he, so humble, should have been 
chosen by the king of kings as a mouth-piece. 

" The dreams of Pharaoh are one. The Great Power who 
gave life to all things and can take it away, permits King 
Pharaoh this glimpse into the time to come ; there will be 



JOSEPH. 19 

seven years of great, great plenty in the land of Egypt, from 
the stars one side to the ones on the other, from the left to 
the right hand. But, after them, there shall come seven years 
of famine, which shall so lay waste the earth that its former 
fruitfulness shall be driven out of mind. The dream was 
twice sent to Pharaoh, so that he might be fully convinced 
and not say : ' Ah! it was only a sport of my mind. 1 The 
fourteen years thus halved between plenty and want are 
surely to be sent by God. Let Pharaoh choose some wise 
man to rule the land of Egypt, appoint officers and put 
away in safety the product of a fifth part of the realm, and 
store up grain in all the strong cities against the seven bad 
years. Else, the people will die off the face of the coun- 
try." 

Not only did this speech seem sensible in Pharaoh's eyes, 
but also in those of the rest, and they bowed approval, 
when the sovereign said : 

" As God shows you so much, it must be because there 
are none so wise as you. For this, you shall be great as 
myself throughout my domains, excepting on the throne. 
Let all know that this man is set over all the kingdom of 
Egypt!" 

Pharaoh put his own signet ring, as token of authority on 
Joseph's hand, ordered fine clothes to be given him and pre- 
sented him with a heavy chain of gold. Whenever the 
royal train went out of the palace, hunting, traveling, visit- 
ing this or that great noble, Joseph rode in the chariot that 
came next to the royal one, and he had guards given him 
who cleared a way before him wherever he went, and 
ushers who cried, with trumpettings : " Bow the knees !" 
Thus was the poor shepherd boy of Canaan, by trust in 
God. patience, diligence, obedience to his elders and supe- 
riors in every hour of his life, elevated to the honored posi- 
tion of ruler over the great, populous land of Egypt. He 



20 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

who had borne his brothers' persecutions so long was now 
the second in the kingdom. In a little over twelve years, 
the Father he confided in (and who took the place of the 
one not seen or heard of for so long) had granted him the 
almost miracle. 

Joseph traveled all over the country which was yielding 
in great abundance, and saw that the harvest was garnered 
in the strong cities, where the shelter of the huge ware- 
houses would prevent the hurt it would be exposed to in 
the open fields. The corn was so richly plenty, that it was 
impossible to measure it, and they had to be glad to have 
it without reckoning its quantity. Meanwhile, as Joseph 
was growing wealthy in power and substance, he was 
blessed besides with two children, for he had been given 
in marriage the daughter of the high priest of On. The 
first (boy like the other) he named Manasseh, meaning : 
" God hath made me forget my toil and my distant home." 
The other was named Ephraim. 

At last, the seven years of abundance came to a close, 
and the dreaded season began, as God had announced by 
Joseph. The dearth was every where. Growing things 
ceased to grow or, if grown never blossomed or came to 
seed, and the insects, that people might have lived on, died 
away like bird and beast, for lack of food. In Egypt alone, 
there was bread, for when his subjects began to complain 
in fear of starvation, King Pharaoh sent them to Joseph. 
He opened the granaries, and sold to the people. The other 
districts, not under Pharaoh's rule, began to hear of his sub- 
jects living out of fear of starvation, and they flocked into 
his realm to buy also. 

Thus Joseph, in return for his corn, received all the 
money not only belonging to the Egyptians themselves but 
to the people around that country. The money was given 



JOSEPH. 2 1 

to the king. Then, after the consumers were penniless, 
fchfvy came again to Joseph and asked for bread. 

" They had no money, but could he see them die under 
his very eyes, when his granaries were solid to the ground 
with weight of wheat. 

" You have cattle," answered Joseph. " Shall our lord 
the king go unrewarded for his care to this people ? If you 
have no money, bring your cattle." 

And the pasturages, jaa'ds and houses of the government 
began to be crowded with horses, flocks of sheep, herds of 
cattle, asses, and, in exchange for them, Joseph gave out 
the material for bread which lasted them that year. Again 
hunger appeared, and the people came begging to eat. 

" Our money, like our cattle, is gone, my lord. Ourselves 
and our lands alone are left to us. But what use will be 
land, if we perish ? We will sell our lands and our bodies 
for food. We will be servants to Pharaoh, before famine 
shall destroy us." 

In return for the provisions, then, Joseph took all the 
ground of the fields of both rich men and poor in the name 
of the king. He made the inhabitants leave one part of 
Egypt to be collected at another, and, in planting the seeds 
he gave them, reserve a fifth part of the yield for the sover- 
eign. 

During this time, the famine had greatly afflicted men far 
off, and near to Egypt, and Israel himself had his crops scanty 
and spoiled. But, on hearing the news, which traveled 
slowly then, of the Egyptians being happy in sustenance, 
he turned to his murmuring sons and ordered them to get 
all ready, except young Benjamin so beloved by the aged 
man, and go down to Egypt to buy corn. The ten brothers 
made the journey in safety and came before Joseph. As 
they bowed themselves to so mighty a man as he, he recog- 



22 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

nised them, but they, very naturally, did not see in the youth 
drawn out of the well-hole to be sold for a few coins the 
dreaded second ruler in the realm. Joseph roughened his 
voice in addressing them, while thinking how his visions of 
boyhood of his brothers bowing down to him were now 
realised, and asked them by an interpreter, for he pretend- 
ed ignorance of the Hebrew tongue : 

" Well, where are all you from ?" 

" The land of Canaan. We are come to buy food." 

" You utter untruth. You are spies, and wish to see if 
we are starving here. But, look ! we have enough to live 
on, and our men of war are not wasted away, and can 
stoutly use the spear, bow and sling, which at least, the 
famine cannot hurt. You are spies, but you cannot see 
suffering in our land." 

" No, no, my lord, we your servants, are simply come to 
buy food. We are sons of one man who lives in Canaan 
now. We are twelve brethren, but the youngest stays at 
home with father, and one is dead, we believe." 

" Very well. Your own story shall prove your truth. 
By the life of Pharaoh the great king, you shall stay here 
in durance until I see this youngest brother of yours. I 
will have you kept in prison till one of you can go and bring 
back this brother and show you are true men. Otherwise 
you are spies and you shall suffer the fate you deserve." 

For three days, they were all shut up ; at the end of 
which time, they were brought before Joseph, who said : 

" There may be truth in your tale, and if so, I am one who 
fear the Universal Pailer too greatly to be cruelly harsh to 
you. Let one only of you remain as hostage, while the rest 
of you take away what corn you buy, for your family should 
not die. But, remember, bring back your youngest brother 
to me, that done, will prove the truth of your story, and no 
harm shall befall you" 



JOSEPH. 23 

" This misfortune has come upon us," saM they one to 
another; u as a judgment for our having been so guilty to our 
brother Joseph. We would not hear him when he appeal- 
ed — we are not listened to, now in our distress." 

" Did I not say," answered Reuben, " ' Do the child no 
harm V " You would not hear me, then. Now, his blood is 
on our heads." 

They did not know that Joesph, who overheard them, 
could understand what they said. But he did, and he could 
not help going into an inner room and weeping, and return- 
ed to them. He order Simeon to be taken from them and 
bound with cords in their very sight. Their sacks were 
tilled with corn, by his commands, and, besides putting 
their money in them, they were given provisions for the 
way. They reached home, told their father the story, and 
were all surprised to find their bags of money in their 
several sacks. They were afraid as well as surprised. 

" What is it God has done for us ?" exclaimed they. 

" What is it God has done to me ?" sorrowed Israel, for- 
getting himself to blame the Great Power, who was at the 
very moment so kind to him. " My children are being torn 
from me. First, Joseph goes to death. Now Simeon is in 
evil hands, and here you try to take Benjamin from me. 
Everything is against me.'' 

But Reuben spoke out : 

" Father, I have two sons. You can slay them if — after 
you shall have trusted Benjamin to me — I do not bring him 
back to you." 

But the old man was not to be persuaded. 

" Two are gone. 1 will not add another to their number. 
He shall not go down into the land of Pharaoh with you. 
His brother Joseph is dead and has left him alone. If any 
misfortune befall him on your way, you will bring down 
my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave." 



24 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

At last, the corn that had been purchased, was all used 
up, and famine once more stared them in the face. 

" Our food is nearly all consumed," said Israel. " You 
will have to go again into Egypt and procure more." 

" But," said Judah, " that great man among the Egyptians 
said he would not let us come near him unless our brother 
was with us. Let Benjamin come, and we will do what 
you say. But unless you do, I, for one, am not going to 
enter the lion's den." 

" Would you rather enter the den with a tender lamb to 
give the fierce beast ?" asked the old man. " Oh, why did 
you say anything about your brother ?" 

" Why ? Because the governor asked particularly as to 
our father and family. We answered him as we should. 
How could we think he would say what he did, and make 
Simeon a hostage ?" 

" Let the boy come with us," said Judah, " it's but a ride 
for him. We will be off at once there. I will answer to 
you for all. Let him come, or we — you and ourselves and 
families — will die assuredly. Let him come, father. We 
would have been back already, only for your delaying." 

Israel sighed. 

" If it must be, let it be so. But do this as well. Carry 
down a present to that governor ; some of your best fruits, 
some balm, spices, honey and almonds. They do not have 
these things in Egypt, and they may be accounted a wel- 
come gift. And take double money this time, and the 
money that we found tied up in the corn, it must have 
been by some mistake. Ah ! well, take Benjamin, and go. 
May the Almighty God be merciful and make merciful this 
governor, so that he may send away your brother Simeon 
and Benjamin. If my children shall be taken away, God 
help me." 

They saddled their asses and camels, put on their gifts. 



JOSEPH. 25 

divided the money among them for safer and easier car- 
riage, and started on their second journey, ten again, with 
Benjamin among them. They arrived in safety at the house 
where Joseph as governor distributed the food. When 
Joseph saw them, and Benjamin among thern, he went 
away and ordered the steward of his palace to bring the 
brothers to his residence, and make all ready for a dinner 
which he would have with them at noon. The Hebrews 
were conducted to the place, where they were too much 
terrified to wonder at the massive walls of hewn sandstone, 
the gigantic carvings of animals, and the ornaments of 
6trange leaves and plants. 

" This is the governor's house," whispered Reuben, " we 
are in danger. The money was returned to us so as to 
make it a pretext to accuse us of theft, and not only rob us 
of our beasts of burden but make us bondsmen also." 

To prevent this, they hastened to speak to the steward 
and tell him how they had been astounded to find their pay 
returned to them. 

" Peace be to you, have no fear," said the man ; " we had 
your money." 

Simeon was released and brought out to his brothers, 
who were shown every attention ; their feet, on which the 
burning sand had fallen in their journey, were washed in 
cold water, and the animals of their train were fed. They 
heard that the governor meant to come home to dine, and 
against his appearance, they prepared their presents. And 
when Joseph did, indeed, enter, they hastened to offer him 
w T hat they had brought, bowing down as low as the ground. 
He asked them of their health, and went on to inquire : 

'■ Is your father, the old man of whom you spoke, still 
alive and well ?" 

" Our father, your lordship's servant, is alive and in good 

health." 

2 



26 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

And, as they bowed again, they did not notice his inward 
joy at the grateful news. 

" This, then, is your younger brother, T suppose, of whom 
you were telling me ?" he said, pointing to Benjamin. 

" Yes, my lord." 

" God be good to you, my sons !" said Joseph, making 
haste to enter his room, where he wept long and plentifully, 
for he loved so dearly despite all. As soon as he had wash- 
ed his face, and bathed his eyes to remove the redness, he 
went out, master again of his emotions, and bid the servants 
serve up the meal. He sat at a higher part of the table 
than the others, eating apart. The Egyptians too, did not 
break bread with the Hebrews, for they did not eat with 
men like them who lived on the flesh of cattle, which they 
held holy and worshipped. The brothers sat in order, 
Reuben first and Benjamin last, all wondering as they dined, 
for the magnificence of Joseph's house, the number of ser- 
vants, and the richness of the fare, took by surprise men 
accustomed to simple bread and fruit taken in the open air. 
And they were greatly amazed besides, when Joseph sent 
them dishes from his own table and sent Benjamin five 
times as many dainties as to the others. 

Joseph called his steward to him and commanded him to 
fill the men's sacks with food till they could hold no more, 
except their bags of money, which should be put in the 
mouths ; and to put his silver cup, on which he set great 
store, in the mouth of the youngest man's sack with his 
money. 

The brothers had a plentiful supper served them and soft 
beds to lie on that night. As soon as it was dawn, they 
took advantage of the morning's coolness to start with their 
asses. But Joseph was on the watch, and had arranged all 
his plans. As soon as the party were out of the city, but 
not gone very far on their homeward way rejoicing, Joseph 



JOSEPH. 27 

called his steward and told him to take some soldiers and 
hasten after the Hebrews. Collecting a score of the guards 
the chief man of Joseph's household made haste and over- 
took the brothers, who were seized by the armed men. 

" What do you lay hands on us for ?" cried Judah, strug- 
gling fiercely with his staff against the Egyptians' spears, 
but mastered at last. 

"What have we done, good sirs?" asked Eeuben ; "to 
be stopped on the road after your lord has feasted us and 
let us go in gladness and with thanks. 

" You repaid his goodness with evil," answered the 
steward. " You have robbed my master." 

" No ! no !" said they all. " We brought back the money 
that went in our bags to Canaan ! Does that seem an action 
of men who would steal from their benefactor's house, 
whose roof kindly sheltered them ?" 

" The rich silver cup, by which my master sees into the 
future, is missing. You have done evil in taking it." 

The brothers held up their hands to heaven. 

" If we have aught of your master's goods, except that 
came honestly," answered they, " we are willing to be pun- 
ished for it. If you find the silver vessel on one of us, let 
him die, and we will be your lord's bondsmen also." 

" Agreed," said the steward, "let it be according to your 
own words. Whoever has the stolen cup shall give his 
life to my master, and you shall be blameless." 

So, they unloaded the asses after they had found nothing 
on the men, and began to open their sacks and feel in them 
for the object. It was the eldest that they began on, and 
the prisoners' faces brightened as the eighth, the ninth and 
the tenth had been examined and nothing of the cup seen, 
though there was in every sack the money they had paid. 
But the last, Benjamin's, was scarcely untied, than some- 



2o THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

thing glittered in amongst the yellow grain, — it was the 
cup. 

They loaded the asses quickly, and, with their captives 
mourning, blaming Benjamin for having done the theft, and 
wondering that their price should have been returned 
anew, they turned back to the city. Joseph was still in his 
house. When led before him, they fell upon their faces on 
the stone slabs. 

" What have you done ?" reproached Joseph. " Do you 
think I am named vainly the Revealer of Secrets, (for this 
was the Egyptian name given to him by King Pharaoh, 
when he explained the dreams.) Can yon do anything and 
I not know it?" 

" What shall we say to your lordship ? what ? what ? 
how can we clear ourselves? God has punished us all for 
one's wickedness, (and for our sin of old," said Judah to 
himself.) " We are your lordship's servants, we and he 
whose sack contained the cup." 

" It would be wrong to do that, very unjust," said Joseph. 
" It is enough that the one in whose sack they found the 
cup, shall be my servant. The rest of you can go unre- 
strained to your home." 

The brothers looked at one another, and the same scene 
was before their eyes : an old, old man, his head in his 
hands, his breast in the dust, his long silver beard torn and 
dust-stained, and tears running from his worn eyes. Reuben 
turned away his face, Naphtali sobbed, the other's faces 
showed what they felt, but none but Judah had the courage 
to address the governor. 

" Oh, my lord," said he, " let me, your servant, speak one 
word in your ears. Letnot your anger burn against a poor 
herdsman, when you are mighty as Pharaoh's self. You 
asked us your servants, my lord, if we had a father or 
brother, and we answered : ' My lord, we have an old 



JOSEPH. 29 

father and a little child of his old age. The boy's brother 
is dead like his mother, of whom he is all that is left for 
father to love.' You bade us go bring him down here to 
be seen by you, and we answered : * The youth cannot 
leave his father, for if they are parted, the old man will 
die. But you swore we should never more find you favor- 
able to uf, unless we should let you see our brother, and 
we told our father this. He wanted us to go again to buy 
what would keep us alive, but we refused except he let 
our youngest brother go with us. And oh, sir, when we 
6aid this, father moaned : ' One of my dear wife's two 
sons went out of the house and has never been seen again 
by me — if the other is also lost, you will bring down my 
gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.' So, if we go home 
and do not have the boy with us, he will die, and we, your 
servants, will bring down his gray hairs in sorrow to the 
grave ! I was surety for him, and on me all the blame and 
grief will fall. I pray you, my lord governor, to have me 
stay instead of the boy, and let him go home with his 
brothers. For how shall I go up to my father without the 
youth ? I would then see the death of my father.' " 

Joseph could play his part no longer at this touching 
speech, and in a broken voice, he ordered everybody out 
of the room. As soon as he was alone with his brothers, 
he burst into tears, and wept so loudly that he was heard 
beyond the door. 

" I am Joseph !" said he, sobbing. 

They were amazed and greatly disturbed by his making 
himself known. 

" Come here to me, come.'\ 

They approached 'him reluctant with the remembrance 
of their treatment of him. 

" I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold to be taken 
into Egypt. Do not be grieved or angry with yourselves 



30 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

for having done so. It was God who sent me thither to 
preserve life. Two years of famine have passed over the 
land, but there are yet five years, in which there can be no 
harvest. God chose me to save your lives as well by a 
great deliverance. He made me a father to Pharaoh in 
counselling him, and lord over all his house and the king- 
dom." 

They could still hardly believe their sight and their ears. 

" Your eyes see, so do Benjamin's, that it is the mouth 
of your brother Joseph that speaks." 

And, unable to contain himself longer, Joseph fell upon 
Benjamin's neck and the two wept in gladness together. 
And he kissed all his brethren, with tears of forgiveness. 
After that, they told each his story, and thus they learned 
one another's lives. 

" Now, make haste back to our father, and say, his own 
son Joseph is living. God has made him lord of all Egypt. 
He asked him to come into Egypt with all of you and 
yours, with your flocks and herds, where you shall dwell in 
the Land of Goshen and be cared for by me, lest you and 
yours come to" want, for there are yet five years to come of 
famine. Tell father of all my glory and of all you have 
seen ; and you shall hasten your return to me with him." 

The news of the meeting had reached Pharaoh's ears, 
and it pleased him as it had done Joseph's other friends. 
The king came to say to his right-hand man : " When your 
brothers are home, let them tell their father that the King 
of Egypt, for the sake of the son of his who has done so 
much with such faithfulness to his monarch, promises him 
the best in his realm." 

Joseph gave his brothers carts for the carriage of their 
goods on their return, provision for their journey, ten asses 
laden with Egyptian luxuries and ten more laden with corn, 
bread and meat for Israel, and to each man fine clothes and 



JOSEPH. 31 

to Benjamin three hundred pieces of silver and fine dresses. 
With their long train now, they arrived in Canaan. But, 
when they told their father of the greatness of God's kind- 
ness and bounty to those who walk in His ways as shown 
to Joseph, the aged man all but fainted at the surprise 
of his lost son being alive and governor of Egypt, and he 
would not believe till he had seen the carts Pharoah had or- 
dered Joseph to give his brothers, which were of a better 
make than the rude ones the men of the country had in 

use. 
c ' Enough. Joseph my son is yet alive. I will go and 

see him before I go to the God, whom, in my weakness and 

sin, I repined against, but who has proved Himself to be 

always too good to man." 

And the old man hurried the departure of his family, 
and, to the number of sixty-six, they left Canaan for the 
new home. Judah was the guide and he led the way into 
Goshen. Joseph had word of the coming and he mounted 
his chariot and was driven to meet Israel his father. When 
they did come together, he hastened to fall upon the neck 
of the old man, who had mourned over him as dead these 
fifteen years, and wept on his bosom a long, long while. 
For, at last, God had blessed his humble follower as his faith- 
fulness, truth, wisdom and gratitude deserved. 

Joseph brought five of his brothers to Pharaoh, having 
previously instructed them how to answer the king, and, 
on the latter's learning that they were shepherds (who 
were not liked by the Egyptians from their having to do 
with cattle, whose images they worshipped, as has been 
said), he gave them the district of Goshen, and asked 
Joseph to select some of his father's family skilled in such 
matters to wersee his cattle. Joseph presented his father 
to Pharaoh whom the old man of a hundred and thirty 
years blessed. 



32 



THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 



To the Hebrews were given the Land of Kamesis, or 
Goshen, as Pharaoh had promised, and there they were 
nourished with bread from Joseph. At length, the famine 
passed, and the Hebrews increased in numbers, wealth and 
happiness for seventeen years, when Israel felt his time 
was come to die, and he called for Joseph. He made him 
take the vow to have his body buried among those of his 
forefathers out of Egypt. And, as the patriarch's eyes grew 
dim, Joseph brought his two sons to his bedside, where 
the old man kissed them. 

" How good God is !" said he, " how good ! I never be- 
lieved I would see you, my son, again, but I not only see 
you, but your children, too. May the Angel which redeem- 
ed you from all evil, bless your boys, who will share in the 
blessings the God of Israel has promised our house. Let 
their names be changed to Isaac and Abraham, my fathers. 
Dear son Joseph, I die, but God, who is for everlasting, 
will be with you and yours." 

Then he called the others around him and blessed them 
all, but to Joseph he said : 

" You are a fruitful tree by the well, which has been 
hated and grieved, wounded and bent, but the dews and 
sun of heaven have blessed you and you have risen. The 
God of your father shall bless you and be bountiful to him 
who was separated from his brethren." 

When Israel had ended the farewell to his sons, he died, 
Joseph kissing his cold face and raining hot tears upon 
him. Years and distance had not estranged him, and the 
honored governor in the prime of life was ever the loving 
son. According to the custom in Egypt, the body was em- 
balmed ; that is wrapped about with cloths oiled and 
spiced which keep it from decay. For seventy days the 
Egyptians mourned over the father of the saviour of their 
land When the days of sorrowing were over, Joseph told 



JOSEPH. S3 

Pharaoh of his vow to his father to bury him with his an- 
cestors, and he was not only cheerfully given the permis- 
sion, but the king's household and all the men in Egypt 
eminent for wisdom and station joined with Israel's family 
to form a great procession of horses, camels, chariots and 
carts. It was in Canaan, beyond the river Jordan that Jo- 
seph held a mourning for seven days, before they buried 
the body in the desired place. As they returned to Egypt, 
the brothers of Joseph became afraid that he, now that 
their father was dead, would revenge himself for what they 
had done to him when he was powerless. 

They hastened to send a messenger to him to tell him 
that their father had wished him to show them forgiveness 
for their evil design upon him, and they followed after to 
bow themselves to him. 

But he raised them and bade them have no fear. 

" You meant evil against me, true ; but God meant good, 
and I have been the instrument in saving many lives. Do 
not fear. Be happy and rear your little ones." 

Joseph continued faithfully to assist and encourage his 
brothers and their numerous offspring. 

In the midst of all the temptings of ambition and the al- 
lurements of pleasure, Joseph remained true to the godly 
precepts inculcated by the venerable patriarch, Jacob, his 
worthy father. Indeed, doubtless, in his boyhood the aged 
Israel had often described to his wondering and attentive 
child the glorious vision that had flashed upon him, when 
his head reposed upon the stone pillow, what time he saw 
the angel of the Lord, ascending and descending from the 
open gates of heaven, and heard the Great voice foretell the 
future prosperity and glory of his children and his chil- 
dren's children. These communings must have fallen like 
good seed into the heart of the young shepperd, and ripen 
ed into a golden harvest when in after years he governed 



34 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

the mighty people who in those days quenched their thirst 
with the waters of the Nile. 

Joseph lived long to witness the benefits he had conferr- 
ed both on his own family and on the people of his adop- 
tion, and sank to rest amid the lamentations of those whom 
he had saved from destruction. 



EOSES. 85 



MOSES. 

For the salvation of Egypt, his kingdom, Pharaoh was 
grateful to Joseph the Hebrew, and, while he reigned and 
there lived those people who had been spared from the 
famine by the once shepherd boy's care (under G-od), all 
went well with the relations of Joseph who had come and set- 
tled in the land of Egypt. But the time arrived, when a new 
monarch sat upon the throne, and he was not at all pleased 
at the foreigners being so blessed as they were. He was 
afraid, too. that they would ere long become so numerous 
and powerful that they would be a thorn in his side. They 
might at any moment join themselves to the enemies of 
Egypt and overthrow the sovereign in their own favor. 

So he thought to alter their happy lives, and, appointing 
overseers over them after dividing them into bands, they 
were made to do hard work for him, such as making roads, 
drawing water, and building cities. But heaven still 
blessed the people, and it seemed as if the more they were 
oppressed the more rapidly they increased. This only shar- 
pened the Pharaoh's anger, and he lengthened the hours of 
labor and the hardness of their tasks. Yery toilsome it; 
was for the Hebrews, to labor at moulding bricks to be 
dried in the sun, at moving massive blocks of stone to 
great distances, at tilling the ground, at bearing great bur- 



36 THE BOYS OP T3E BIBLE. 

dens, at doing the acts beasts were usually employed for. 

But all this did the poor drudges no harm as far as their 
number went, and only goaded the king on to greater sever- 
ity, until at length, he ordered that every boy born to the 
Hebrews should be flung into the Nile, there to meet cruel 
death by the exposure, the cold wind and crocodiles, in 
their helplessness and innocence. 

There was one mother of the tribe of Levi, who had 
hidden her little son for three months from the searches of 
the royal officers, for she could not bear — whatever might 
be her puuishment — to be robbed of the pretty little thing 
beginning to smile his thanks for her cares and loves. But 
at last, she could not help seeing that further concealment 
would only bring harm upon herself and on the little one as 
well. So she plaited of rushes a basket that would float 
like a boat, put pitch on the seams to keep the water out, 
filled it inside with soft leaves and cloth, laid the baby 
in it well wrapped up and went down to the Nile. She 
had thought at first to push the frail vessel out into the 
stream, but her heart failed her, and she had only the 
strength to go off, her eyes ail the time on it, leaving it 
among the tall reeds. Then, weeping, she went home ; for, 
to have the child so near her, and she having to abandon it, 
was a torture she could not bear. She could only mourn 
and trust the outcast to heaven. 

Her daughter, though, lingered near the spot to see what 
accident might befal the boat. As the shades of evening 
came on, a clank of metal reaced her ears, and she hurried 
to hide herself among the bulrushes, for they were soldiers 
who approached ; men of the royal guard who explored 
the bank to make sure no men were near. They saw only 
the Hebrew woman. As soon as their captain had render- 
ed his report that the shore was clear, he and his men 
went away to give place to a number of richly dressed wo- 



MOSES. 3T 

men, tinkling with heavy ear-rings, bracelets and rings 
round their ancles, and brilliant with brightly dyed mantles 
and jeweled headdresses : it was Pharaoh's daughter, with 
her maids coming to bathe in the river. 

She was unfolding her robes when a piteous wail came 
to her ears. She knew it could not be any of the birds fishing 
along the shores, nor fish in the river, and, her curiosity 
awakened, she went to the place. The babe had opened 
his eyes and was crying in her face, while his tiny hands 
seemed to beg her to help him. She had compassion on 
him, and she knelt on the rushes she had bent down, to 
see him better. She knew at once that it was a Hebrew 
child, but she imagined that it was some poor mother's 
who had set it adrift in the ark and it had been run aground 
here before the breeze. As she spoke her thought, the 
babe's sister came from her covert and said to the prin- 
cess : 

" Shall I find some woman of the Hebrews to care for this 
innocent who has attracted your Highness's pity ?" 

"Yes. Haste." 

The girl had not far to run to bring back the mother of 
the boy, whom the princess ordered to take him away 
and nurse it for her, for pay, and she would see no harm 
should come to her, for evading the law. So wonderfully 
by providential aid, the mother was not deprived of her 
joy until he was of fair age, when Pharaoh's daughter de- 
manded him. She gave the name of Moses to him, for 
that means : Taken from the running water. In the 
palace, a page and attendant with other youths, Moses 
grew to manhood, but he always preserved a love for his 
race. 

One day, he was out in the fields, when the laborers were 
returning home, with the last loads for the night. He saw 
one poor Hebrew bending under a great bundle of wheat 



38 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

and scarcely able to move, but an Egyptian was beating 
him and bidding him walk faster, faster. All Moses' blood 
rushed to his face, he hardly waited to look prudently right 
and left to be sure no witnesses were nigh, and struck down 
the tyrannical task-master. The blow, given with all the 
youth's strength and with all his indignation, was fatal. 
He hurriedly scooped out a hole in the sand and buried the 
body. But the rescued Hebrew told the story to all his 
brothers, while, soon after, the Egyptians found the corpse, 
which hyenas had unearthed. So they sought high and 
low for the sla} 7 er, who had fled — in fear of this — out of 
the kingdom into the Land of Midian, for Pharaoh had 
especially ordered his death, and he could find shelter no- 
where within his domains. 

Hungry, footsore and lonely, Moses wandered in the 
strange country. His life in the palace had unfitted him 
for any such calling as tender of cattle or as a farmer, and 
he barely could get a bit of bread here and there a3 a gift 
from some husbandman. 

He was sitting by a well, having just quenched his thirst 
and bathed his face, sadly watching some flocks and their 
herdsmen, almost envying the latter for having some kind 
of a home to which to go, when half a dozen girls of dif- 
ferent ages but having sufficient likeness to seven sisters, 
as they were, (being the seven daughters of Reuel, the 
high priest of Midian), came to the well, each driving her 
division of the great flock of their father. The) were 
about to fill the large troughs by the well's mouth, made of 
halves of trees hollowed out, when the other shepherds 
ran up and would have driven all away, girls and sheep 
But Moses, brandishing his walking-staff, forced the men 
to cease their rudeness, and helped the maids in the water- 
ing of the flocks. 

In other days, the girls, unable to strive against the 



MOSES- 39 

shepherds, had often had to waste many hours in begging 
permission to draw water there and sometimes had to wait 
until the men had gone away to house their flocks. Hence 
Reuel was surprised to see his daughters returning with 
their sheep safe before it was dusk. They told him how a 
stranger, dressed like a man of Egypt, had stood their 
friend and been of so much assistance to them. 

" What ! and you never have invited him to break bread 
with us ? your thanks must have been like pressed apples 
to the wayfarer. Send out and have him brought to tho 
house." 

They found Moses not far off and forced him to sup and 
spend the night there. He told what story he pleased of 
his life, and Reuel was happy to engage in his service a 
man who had already showed his courage and readiness to 
oblige. The young fugitive served him faithfully. His 
master became so content with him, indeed, that finally he 
gave him one of his daughters for wife. 

Meanwhile, that king of Egypt died, but no lessening 
came to the toil of the descendants of Israel and their 
pain knew no alleviation. They prayed night and day, amid 
broken sleep and when under the yoke and whip. 

God heard their groans and entreaties, and He listened — 
not only because He is always full of love, kindness and 
mercy — but because He had promised to watch over His 
chosen people, the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. 

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law in the 
desert by the Mountain of Horeb, when he suddenly saw a 
bush burst forth into flame, and yet not a bit of it, bark, 
leaf or twig, was consumed. Curious and astounded, he 
would have gone nearer, when a voice spoke from the burn- 
ing bush, calling him by name and telling him he stood on 
holy ground, for the spirit of God was there. Moses fell on 



40 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

his face in worship and in awe, for mortal eyes could not 
look on such glory. And God bade him do so and so. 

But Moses was but a man and he lacked faith, asking : 
"What proof shall I give the people that I am the messen- 
ger V 

" What have you in your hand ?" 

" A rod that I lately plucked." 

" Cast it on the ground," 

The stick fell on the sandy rock, but, on its touching it, 
its bark changed into a shiny, scaly skin, its fine point into 
a tail, and its broken end into a head, from whose fanged 
jaws a long, forked tongue darted glistening. It was a 
snake that crawled at Moses' feet, and he fled from it in 
alarm. But the voice bade him take it up, and — full of 
faith, now — he found the courage to stoop and to seize the 
reptile by the tail, when it became the rod again. 

Two other proofs were granted to Moses, by which he 
might convince the Hebrews, but again he delayed. 

"I am slow of speech, oh, Lord, and even now when thy 
glory is round about me." 

And God was vexed at Moses' hesitation, and he said : 

" You have an elder brother, Aaron ; he shall receive my 
words through you, and he shall speak to the people. Take 
your rod. Go you into Egypt, for all are dead who would 
revenge that Egyptian's death on you." 

And, trembling, for such an office was weighty for one 
man, Moses hurried to his father-in-law, to obtain his leave 
to go into Egypt and see if the Hebrews his brothers were 
still living. He put his wife and children on an ass and 
set out, the rod made mighty by heaven, carefully enfolded 
in his bosom. On the way he was met by his brother 
Aaron, who had been warned by heaven, also, and to him 
Moses told all. They were eighty years of age at this time. 



MOSES. 41 

When in Egypt, therefore, Aaron rose before the people 
and spoke. And the doubters believed when the miracles 
were performed before them. They believed all the more 
readily because they had prayed so long, and so earnestly 
to be relieved of their afflictions by the Lord. 

Moses and Aaron gained hearing and entrance to the 
royal presence, and, when before the new Pharaoh, Aaron 
said: 

" The Lord who is the God of Israel has spoken. You 
are besought by us, his servants, to be let go three days* 
journey into the desert that we may hold a feast, and wor- 
ship Him untroubled." 

The king laughed, and he glanced around on his magnifi- 
cent palace and its riches. 

" Who is your Lord, who would have me, Pharaoh, obey 
His words ? I know the chief of that tribe, the monarch 
of this nation, but I never heard of the Hebrews boasting 
in a sovereign of power. Do I let my subjects make bricks 
and build for another ruler's glory ? Would your Lord, if 
w r orthy of the name, let His servants be under my thrall. I 
know no Lord on all the earth to whom I bow. I will not 
let my laborers rob me of their work." 

" We pray thee — we who know of our Lord's might — to 
let us go and sacrifice to Him, if we do not, he may punish 
us with plagues or war." 

The king rose up from his chair of state, trembling with 
passion. 

" No, I have said. Moses, Aaron, I have been informed 
of your doings. You go talking to your people and so en- 
chant them with your words on foolish stories about their 
dead and gone greybeards, that they grumble and toil as 
lazily as they dare. I am kind hearted, I have been so to 
you Hebrews more than my royal father (rest to his em- 
balmed body in its pyramid you slaves have been honored 



42 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

to erect !) but now — if you continue to spread uneasiness 
among them, you and they shall rue it." 

He waved the guards to put the Hebrew representatives 
from his throne room. 

" Get you to your work !" 

That same day the king summoned the overseers of the 
workingmen to come before him and he gave out orders 
that the Hebrews should be made to furnish the same 
quantity of bricks as formerly, yet should be compelled 
over and above that to find the straw (which was added to 
the mud to make the bricks more holding) themselves. 

" You do not give them enough to do :" said the monarch 
angrily. " They are idle too much ; go make them work as I 
bid you." 

Next day, therefore, when the Hebrews asked for the 
straw, they were told they were to find it themselves. They 
lost half the day in gathering stubble out of the mown fields, 
for good straw was not procurable, and, do their utmost, 
they could not hope to perform their usual quantity of work. 

As there were too many of the Hebrews for them all to be 
punished on one occasion, the Egyptians had taken some from 
among them to answer for their fellows and these chosen 
men were either the old and revered or the young and 
loved, and on them this evening fell the punishment for 
their bands failing in executing an impossibility. In vain 
they appealed to their Egyptain superiors, and, when they 
went higher with their complaints and addressed Pharaoh, 
he spurned them and sent them back to their master. 

"Lazy fellows! you have time enough to moan out ; Let 
us go to sacrifice to our God. Have time enough to gather 
the straw. You must still produce as many bricks as before, 
in spite of all you say. Away !" 

As these elders and leaders left the palace sorrowfully, 
laughed at by the guards, who pushed them down the great 



MOSES, 43 

steps of huge slabs laid on one another by their own He- 
brew hands, doomed to harder portion, they met Moses and 
Aaron. Happy to vent their troubles on some who would 
have to listen, for none had dared to raise his voice in the 
great king's presence, under the sword as they were, they 
unchained the storm against them. 

•" May the Lord, who alone knows whether you are de- 
ceiving us or not, be the judge between us. We have 
acted as you counselled. We have followed what you say 
is the holy Word, and see ! we are worse than ever in 
Pharaoh's sight, and he and his are eager to kill us in tor- 
ment." 

In vain did Moses assure them that a greater than Pha- 
raoh's superiors, the King of Kings said to him that He 
would free them from Egyptian bondage, and make them 
happy yet in a blessed land. The people were in anguish, 
and they could not, in the depths of their misery, imagine 
the promised land. They turned a deaf ear to Moses and 
his brother, whose voices fell unheeded among them, either 
on woman, man or child. 

Moses prayed from his heart to the Lord, and implored 
Him to continue the promised mercy, to prove that he was 
truthful in what he had reported to the people. God an- 
swered him again : 

" The Hebrews disbelieve my words because you, whom 
I have chosen for an instrument, and not a holy angel, de- 
livered them. I will perform such wonders as only the 
Almighty Creator and Keeper of this my earth could do. I 
will make not only the Hebrews see my power, but these 
idolators, their masters, shall also behold and feel it. I have 
said my people shall go from Egypt. They shall go." 

Again then did Moses and Aaron go into the royal pres- 
ence and ask the permission for the enslaved to go into the 
wilderness. 



41 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

" If this God of yours you so much talk about, was one 
of power," answered Pharaoh, " it is time He displayed it. 
Show me that He has a right to send messengers like you 
to me. Do something that will show the might of Him you 
worship, whom you say is over all." 

Aaron threw down the rod on the carpet at the foot of 
the steps of the throne, and, as it had done at Mount Horeb 
and before the Hebrews, it became a serpent, before whose 
hiss the guards fell back, and the king started in his seat. 
But he laughed his alarm away, and called the wise men, 
priests and magicians to him, and asked them to outdo that 
feat. 

" Behold," said he, " what the untaught brickmakers per- 
form. You are old with learning, do you the same." 

And, indeed, they cunningly cast down on the floor what 
seemed to be sticks but were really serpents, stained and 
moulded at head and tail with painted clay to deceive the 
eye, and which, at the shock of the fall, (which broke their 
false covering, imitating wood,) sprang up in life. The 
messengers sent for them had told them what the Hebrews 
had done, and they had prepared themselves. 

Pharaoh was yet speaking, commanding rewards to be 
given his magicians, while the serpent-rod of Aaron crept 
after the other snakes and devoured them all, without its 
own size in the least increasing. 

But, though the soldiers and the sorcerers themselves 
shrank away and stood aghast, the king laughed, and would 
see nothing in the act but a very superior trick. He coun- 
termanded the recompenses of the wise men, advised them 
to apply themselves more closely to their books till they 
could surpass these slaves who excelled them now, and 
sent away Moses with his request unanswered. 

A response from on high came to Moses, who had onco 



MOSES. 45 

more been compelled to bear his brother's reproaches, and 
with it another direction as to the next step. 

It was morning. The sun rose clear and shot its golden 
arrows upon the calm hill, reflecting the tall palm trees that 
gently nodded, the Hebrews going to the water works along 
the stream, a far-off bird skimming the gilded surface, and 
a fleet of gaily decorated boats, softly rocking on the low 
ripple that laved the stone steps of the embankment near 
the palace. King Pharaoh, with a numerous party, was 
going to take a pleasure excursion ; all were laughing, and 
all was gaiety. 

Leaning on the arm of his favorite, his hair perfumed, a 
band of precious stones encircling his brow, his robe heavy 
with gold thread, King Pharaoh, amid a shout from his 
guard came stately towards the royal barge. He was not 
at all pleased, at such a moment, in such a place, to see, 
stepping out from behind a block of stone, to whose ring 
the rope of the king's boat was fastened, Moses and Aaron, 
their sober garments, venerable air of solemnity, and their 
long grey beards, not at all becoming the scene. 

" I will warrant," whispered he to his favorite, " that 
their first words are, i Let my people go.' By Cain's head, 
they are endless as a serpent biting his own tail. Well 
what do you seek here, sirs ?" 

In his path at the edge of the water, the two confronted 
the monarch. 

11 Sire, we have come to you to beg. We have come to 
show our Lord can amaze. We have come to prove our 
Lord can punish. You have scorned our entreaty to be let 
go into the wilds to worship our God. — Behold !" 

Aaron struck the Nile with the rod. The waters that 
had been golden yellow in the light, steel blue in the sha- 
dow, turned into blood-red where the the sun struck, 
ghastly dark in the shade. It was blood that rolled about 



46 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

the shores, it was blood that buoyed up the gay boats, it 
was blood that dashed spray to the king's sandaled feet. It 
was blood that overpowered sickeningly the myrrh and 
frankincense of the cushions of the boats and of the cour- 
tiers' clothes. 

And everywhere, city and country, indoors and out, in 
jug of humble cottager as in the prince's vase, in the trough 
of cattle as in the lady's bath of marble, the pure, fresh, in- 
odorous water turned into thick, foul blood. The birds 
and beasts flew and ran shudderingly away from their 
drinking places, and the poisoned fish came to the surface, 
their turned-up bellies gleaming whiter than snow on the 
ruddy sheet. 

But the magicians appeared also to turn water into blood, 
and, though they had this power only on the water within 
their reach, and not all over the land like the Hebrews, still, 
Pharaoh would not let himself be affected by the act. 
With the stream foully rolling on at his feet, he was stub- 
bornly resolved not to grant the three days to the Hebrews. 
For seven days, men were in agony with thirst, and fruit- 
lessly digged the sand and bored the rock for the pure 
fluid. 

Again the Lord sent Moses to the King, who had had no 
more pleasure sails on the river, but kept himself shut up 
in his palace, but as before the entreaty was laughed at. 

On which Moses told Aaron to wave the rod over the 
waters ; and where it was done, the Egyptians were seized 
with fresh fright. For out of the river, the rivulets, the 
ponds, the wells, leaped frog after frog, all sizes and colors, 
to such a number that to attempt to count them was foolish. 
They were active and vigorous and no place was safe from 
them, high or low. The people built fires in the gate-ways, 
but the} r pressed on the burning wood and by their moist- 
bodies, put out the blast ; they stood guard over their 



MOSES. 4* 

fields with clubs, stones, and flails and struck out manfully 
but for every reptile slain ten came on more vigorous 
than before. The men stood in the doors, but the frogs 
squeezed past them, leaped up in their faces and on them, 
or jumped through the windows or crept through the air. 
They spared no one or nothing. They sprang down cellars, 
and upset the provisions stored away, they scrambled up 
stairs and danced many deep on the straw of the chambers. 
They secreted themselves in clothes, in the beds, in the 
cooking vessels. They squatted in the ovens and tainted 
the bread by their burnt ashes. They swarmed on the 
couches and seats, and took flying leaps from head to head 
of the eaters, overthrowing the vases, jugs and dishes. 
They were as noisy as active, too, and the sharp cree-ek 
of the little ones and the hoarse gree-uk of the larger 
echoed all over the land instead of the lowing of cattle, 
the bleating of sheep and the chirping of birds. 

The people sent their great men to the king, to beg him 
to save them from such a plague, and the frogs followed 
them, running under their feet, into the palace, where they 
met more of their sort, and into the throne-room, where 
more frogs played. Pharaoh could not but feel this evil, 
for he had no meal in quiet himself, and look where he 
might, there was nothing but the long-legged creatures 
slimily disporting themselves in sun and shade, bending 
down the grain and robbing the fruit-trees of leaves in 
their leaps. He summoned Moses and his brother and 
when they were come, entreated them to ask the Lord to 
remove the pests. If that was done by the morrow, he 
would let the Hebrews do their own will. 

At the prayer of Moses, as quickly as they had sprang to 
life, the frogs dropped dead wherever they were, and joy- 
fully the relieved people hastened to sweep them off the 
roofs, out of the houses and gardens, and gather the dead 



48 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

bodies in open places, where they decayed in monstrous 
piles. A horrible smell blasted the air all over the ground. 
The frogs choked up the waters they were thrown into 
and, when they tried to burn them, the smoke created a 
still greater stench. 

But, Pharaoh could sit at ease after the attendants had 
cleared the palace of the creatures, for he had perfumes 
burnt in plates in every nook and large cloths hung upon 
the air openings on the windward side of the residence, 
and he felt none of the sufferings of the poor. He took 
back his pledged word, and sent out mandates that the He- 
brews should not be let stir. The magicians, too, showed 
before him that they could produce frogs at will, and this 
made him less willing to credit Moses' acts as coming 
from above. 

Then Aaron, at his brother's call, stretched out his arm 
holding the rod once more and beat the ground at his feet. 
No sooner had he done so than the loose sand and dust 
began to move more than with the wind, for each grain be- 
came a living thing. And the atoms, swarming fast and 
thick, began to float about and crawl into every place how- 
ever small and settled on man, woman and child, as well as 
beast-. Bathe as they would, change clothes, shake their 
garments, burn wood in their rooms, these lice were on 
every body among the Egyptians. They crawled over and 
bit into the velvety flesh of the princess as the horny 
palm of the laborer. They hid themselves in the folds of 
silk as in the beggar's rags. They crept over the babe's 
cheek, and on the old man's beard. They made themselves 
nests in the soldier's helmet, and blotched the hands of the 
priests at the altars. They made a moment's repose a 
luxury unenjoyed by any Egyptian. 

With all their knowledge of powerful woods, whose va- 
lors destroyed animal life, the magicians themselves could 






MOSES. 49 

not keep themselves free from the torments, which covered 
their venerable hairs and robes of honor. They were told 
to perform this miracle, but lice were not to be hidden in 
bags like frogs, nor in bladders like blood, nor in moulds of 
clay like serpents, and they failed to accomplish the mar- 
vel. They themselves were among the loudest in appeals 
for their sovereign to accede to anything that would relieve 
them. 

** The hand of a greater than earthly power must be in 
this," they acknowledged, with many a conclusive nod, for 
the presence of majesty could not make them stand un- 
wincing under the bites and motion of the vermin. 

But the king relented in no wise. 

Early in the morning, Pharaoh was wont to come to the 
river's bank to bathe, and more than ever this was a thing 
to be desired now. Moses met him there, and said : 

*'• Oh, king ! the Lord demands you shall let this people 
go and serve him. If not, He warns you a dreadful plague 
shall befal you and yours, while his people shall be freed 
from the infliction. That will prove He can be as good to 
those who love him as harsh to those who decry His wor- 
shippers." 

But " no " was as usual the answer. 

The lice died, and fell back into dust, but, before the dis- 
tressed Egyptians could draw one breath of joyous relief, 
the new visitation appeared. The ground blackened and 
the sky was darkened by the bodies and the air hummed 
with the wings of flies beyond number. Blue, black, red, 
golden, harmless, stinging, tiny and large, flies were born in 
every spot. One cloud came from the upturned earth and 
drove the farmer indoors, where they followed. Another 
mass settled on the fruit and ate it, bud, sprig and leaf. 
Still another myriad floated over a city and were blown 
into the dwellings. They buzzed about night and day and 



50 THE ^OYS OF THE BIBLE. 

respected nobody. They encircled the heads of the pas- 
sengers and, muffle up their faces as they did, nevertheless, 
they found entrance and drove them wild with bites on 
ears, cheeks and lips. They chased the cattle till 
they tired them out in the fields. They drove horses 
and dogs mad. They covered the eatables and the 
tables. They drowned themselves in the milk and wine ; 
they thickened the honey with their bodies. They seemed 
to delight in befouling everything fair, as gold, silver, 
and bleached clothes. It was useless to kill them by thou- 
sands, for multitudes replaced every smothered score. 

But in the Land of Goshen, where the Hebrews lived, 
all was innocent of the insects. Not a fly came near the 
cattle tranquilly grazing, and their tails and ears had no oc- 
casion to move. The water was pure of their touch, and 
sweet things even had no attacks from them. No sound 
like their buzzing was heard anywhere among the He- 
brews, and they could scarcely believe that the Egyptians 
were surrounded and tormented within a few miles of 
them. 

So does the good youth — who receives God's protection 
by his heartfelt prayers deserving it — so does he walk in 
the very midst of the evil-doers whose pleasures carry 
their pains with them, and he can hardly believe that they 
will obstinately keep on in the wrong, when happiness, 
peace, gladness unspeakable, always attends him who 
keeps the law. Strange that the difficult and painful should 
be preferred to the easy and joyful ! 

But not only did the flies do harm to the living, but to the 
dead, too, for they buried their eggs in the cattle they had 
killed, the dogs, horses and sheep, in the bread and cakes, 
in the fruit, and everything thus was infected. Horrible 
deaths befel those who ate incautiously and, before they 
could be embalmed, their flesh crawled into flies ! 



MOSES. 51 

Pharaoh — though a dozen hands swayed great fans be- 
fore him and over him at meals, though a large brasier 
burnt potent bark in his chamber — was none the less trou- 
bled with the flies, and, in agony from their ceaseless as- 
saults and his want of sleep or rest, he called for the He- 
brew brothers. 
* Haste," said he, " Make all ready, and sacrifice here." 
" How can we ?" answered Moses. " Our religion tells 
us to sacrifice cattle, goats, and sheep. These are animals 
sacred to your subjects and we must not offend them. 
They would fall upon us and kill us for insulting them 
through death-dealing to their holy things. Let us go out 
into the wilderness where no man save ourselves can look 
on. God alone will see, and be pleased we have at last 
been enabled to obey him." 

" You shall be let go," said Pharaoh ; " go and sacrifice 
to your Lord, but you must not go far." 

u Three days* journey into the wilderness only." 
11 Delay not to entreat your God to rid us of these flies." 
" I go. But let the king beware of breaking his royal 
word a second time. The Lord who has done so much 
can surely do more. 

The flies died away and disappeared, not leaving a scrap 
of wing or a fragment of leg anywhere. All rejoiced, but 
Pharaoh hardened his heart once, more, and commanded his 
officers to watch the Hebrews that they should not stir. 
Uselessly, another time, Moses reminded the monarch of his 
pledge. As before, Pharaoh laughed to scorn the demand 
of the heavenly King. But, while the laugh was on his 
lips, the punishment descended. 

Though the stock of the Hebrews were unharmed, not, 
so with the Egyptians. The sheep fell as if lightning 
struck in the meadows ; the cows died at the milking-pail ; 
the stable-doors, that had shut in on the living, opened in 



52 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

the morning on dead carcasses ; the camels dropped under 
their loads in the market-places ; the asses sank swim- 
ming the streams or rolled lifeless on the banks ; the horses 
died in the very chariots ■ of the king as he would have 
gone lion-hunting, and threw their riders, who may have 
risen, though the steeds never did. All the cattle died 
then : the gentle pony of the princess, the charger of the 
king, the war-horse of the guardsman, the dromedary 
of the merchant, the pet lamb of the peasant boy. But 
messengers came and affirmed to the king that not a beast 
belonging to the sons of Israel was otherwise than in the 
best of health. In spite of all this, Pharaoh was stern and 
unbending as ever. 

So was he, though a plague came, which made every 
Egyptian shake to his bones. And he set his lip and shook 
his head firmly again, when Moses came to say : 

" That you, oh, king, may know our God is unapproached 
in might ; seeing that you are untouched by his might al- 
ready displayed, more shall yet befal you. You dare to 
rank yourself with Him who holds the whole world as you 
do not hold your Egypt, — you defy him in not letting his 
chosen go,~you shall see and feel his anger. At this hour 
on the morrow, there will fall a hail, the like of which has 
not been seen in Egypt, from the day when the Nile was a 
tiny line of watery drops, to this of its wide channel. Let 
those who believe house themselves, and all they hold dear 
and would preserve." 

Those who felt that the power that had already so many 
times manifested itself, would not fail in its threats, did not 
go out the next morning, but saw to it that their servants 
and children were well under cover. Many though, like 
their ruler, were incredulous, and went to their labor as 
usual. 

Moses held up his rod to Heaven. Heaven covered it- 



MOSES. 53 

self with clouds, and these split to let out lightning in bolts, 
balls and zigzags, while the shock of the thunder shook the 
earth, and was so continuous that echo was silenced. With 
the fire that fell, flaming stones, blue, yellow and red, that 
buried themselves in the ground, and dashed through 
weak roofs, hail came down also in immense lumps. It cut 
up the grass already scorched, it hammered the roofs and 
splintered the cut stone ornaments of the princely houses, 
it stripped the trees of leaves and then broke their boughs, 
it leveled the barley and flax, and unearthed the green 
shoots of rye and wheat. Men who had rashly stayed in 
the open land were bruised, and glad to hide under stones, 
or reach cover after a run in the pelting storm. Soldiers on 
guard had their head-pieces split and beaten in, and were 
forced to get in doors for fear of death. Streets and roads 
were deserted while the storm raged. 

But the Land of Goshen was not intruded on by the hail 
stones and lightning, and peace set boundaries around it 
against the furious tempest. 

The hail, amid the peals of thunder, rattled on the palace 
top, and made such a noise that the king could scarcely be 
heard in the shout he gave for Moses to be brought to him/ 
They hastened to take cushions, two or three thick, on 
their heads and shoulders, before they dared run out and 
face the shower in a search for the Hebrews. 

" I have sinned," said Pharaoh to them. " Your Lord is 
such a Lord as you declare Him. Entreat Him to stop this 
hail and lightning. It is enough. You shall be hindered 
no longer." 

Then said Moses : 

"I will prove to you in this, that the earth He created, 
as well as the heavens in which He reigns, is the Lord's. 
As soon as I leave the city, I will lift up my hands in prayer 
to my King. Tho storm shall cease, so you may know. 



54 THE BOYS: OF TEE BIBLE. 

But you and yours are not believers yet, though 3 r ou may 
say so when the evil days are on you. With sunshine, your 
terrors vanish." 

The storm ceased at Moses' prayer, but, as he said, Pha- 
raoh was just as unyielding. Moses warned him that on 
the next day, a new calamity should overwhelm his realm 
and his subjects, to make evident that the Lord could do 
wonders for those who pleased him and against those who 
were too proud to humble themselves to His incomparable 
might. The Egyptians shuddered at the threat and mur- 
mured to their monarch : 

" Oh, master, how long shall this man Moses be a trouble 
to us ? Are these slaves of Hebrews of so much value that 
we must keep them under us at the risk of Egypt being 
destroyed ? Let them go, we pray you, and serve a dozen 
gods if they will. What is that to us, if w^e are happy as 
we used to be again." 

And, at his nod, they called back the brothers to receive 
Pharaoh's words. 

" Go and serve your Lord. But, who among you are 
going ?" 

" All," answered Moses. " Our young and our old, with 
our flocks and herds, would go, for we must hold a feast to 
the Lord." 

But Pharaoh had them driven from him, for he would 
only allow the men to go into the wilderness, intending to 
keep the rest as hostages against their not returning. 

Moses held out the rod over the land. 

All that day and that night, a wind blew from the east, 
and when it was morning, it was seen that it had borne 
locusts on its wings. They covered the face of the earth so 
as to darken it, around, above and on the ground ihey 
were to be seen flying and creeping. They ate up every- 
thing their mouths could tear: the young plants, the old 



MOSES. 55 

trees, grass, grain, fruit, weeds, until there was nothing 
seen left in Egypt unless as a stump or a barked tree. The 
locusts were as impartial as the other plagues. They de- 
voured the little plot of the poor man as they did the no- 
ble's vast estates, the serfs field as they did the hanging 
garden on the roof of the priests' temple, and they were 
in clusters and layers on the ornamental and rare trees and 
the earth of the royal pleasure grounds. 

In all haste Pharaoh summoned Moses to him and im- 
plored him to remove this scourge. This was the last time 
he would be unrelenting, he said. Bat hardly had Moses* 
prayer led to a wind springing up that swept the insects, 
filled now, into the Red Sea, than the king became the same 
Pharaoh as before. 

A darkness began to enshroud all the land, except where 
the Hebrews were, a darkness so thick as almost to be felt. 
Not the least work could be done. People bruised them- 
selves and even fell from floor to floor in groping from 
room to room. No neighbor could help his neighbor. No 
one could attend to his cattle, and many kept their beds for 
the three days that the gloom lasted. A deadly terror was 
upon all ; the alarmed children, no more seeing the mother's 
dear face, cried without stop ; men fancied all kinds of 
hideous spirits were seeking them in the shadows ; the few 
lights burnt themselves out or were useless in the deep ob- 
scurity. The king shuddered, and started, for fear 
every sound was an assassin feeling unseen his way to 
stab him. He would have compromised with Moses and 
let all the Hebrews go, but without their possessions. On 
Moses persisting in all going, down to the last hoof of their 
cattle, the king was wroth. The light had been restored, 
bear in mind, or, perhaps, he had not been so bold. 

" Get you from me," said he, " beware that I never see 
your face again. That day I do, is that of your death." 



56 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

But the end drew near. 

In the dead of night, throughout Egypt, (and only not 
among the Hebrews,) death came to all the eldest children 
of every man, priest, soldier, farmer, and the king. Hardly 
a house was there, in which there was not a freshly 
stricken corpse. 

The mourners came in crowds to wail at the palace 
gates, within which, too. the dearly beloved but lost were 
being mourned also. They found their bereft ruler but too 
eager to free them and himself of the Hebrews. In the 
night, they hastened to Moses and forced him to lead away 
his people. They gave the Hebrews everything that 
would prevent delay in their starting. And, speedily, the 
immense train o£ several hundred thousand, with thoir all, 
commenced their departure from Egypt, in which land they 
had been two hundred and fifty years. They bore the 
bones of Joseph along with them. 

Meanwhile, Pharaoh had recovered from the first grief. 
Why have you let those servants go ? should they not 
be made to work, if only in revenge for what they have 
brought upon us ? Prepare, all you, my officers, put horses 
to the chariots, and I will lead you against the flying ones." 
The Hebrews were camping near the Red Sea when their 
rear-guard reported the coming of the Egyptian army, and 
they begun to groan against Moses. They were weak in 
faith, despite all their blessings. 

In our times, too, we forget the good God to often when 
He blesses us. and remember Him only when we are tried. 
We pray for sunshine, but rarely are thankful when we are 
in its brightness and warmth. 

But Moses bade them believe in the Almighty, and, in 
truth, the army was kept from approaching them and never 
came within stone's throw. Moses walked to the shore of 
the sea then, and, when he held out the rod, a violent wind 



MOSES. 51 

arose and heaped up the water right and left, so that there 
was a valley of dry land between the two hills of waves. 
Trustingly, the Hebrews marched, with all their trains by 
this road, and reached the opposite shore. 

Enraged at the fugitives' escape, with shout, whistle, and 
blast of trumpet the charioteers dashed into the chasm, 
lashing the horses in fury, while the soldiers brandished 
their spears, bows and slings. They were all engaged in 
the miraculous path, and exulting in the triumph they 
fancied already within their grasp. Moses waved the rod. 

From either side, the piled up, foaming waters fell in- 
wards. Their waves closed in on the chariots, tore off the 
wheels, filled them, buoyed them off the ground and dashed 
them against one another. The soldiers, heavy with coats 
of mail and helmets of thick metal, flung away their wea- 
pons and tried to swim, but the sea rushed over them and 
forced them under. The spray leaped around Pharoah and 
the circle of devoted captains about him, and soon they 
too were playthings of the billows. The gladdening eyes 
of the rescued Hebrews beheld the dead bodies of their 
enemies flung on the shores, while black dots in the dis- 
tant skies were vultures hastening to prey on the proud, 
who perished at the height of their glory. 

After this, there was no further trouble from Egyptians. 
But the wanderers had many sufferings in the desert, many 
lights with warlike tribes who would have prevented their 
journeying, many trials, but — more for the faith of Moses 
than for that of the people — G-od held to His promises, 
never broken like man's, — and conducted them to the prom- 
ised land. And Moses, who had from the days fifty years 
and more before, been truly a faithful servant of the Lord, 
died there — rewarded by seeing a people happy by his 
means — at the age of a hundred and twenty ; all that time 
not having felt old age, as far as decay of natural force in 

eight, hearing or strength, goes. 
3* 



b8 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 



JOSHUA. 



joshua was one who grew up a youth in the days of the 
Hebrews* wanderings in the desert after having escaped 
the revengeful pursuit of King Pharaoh of Egypt. He had 
been a boy carried in arms when the guide, that was a 
cloud' by day and a pillar of fire by night, hovered over the 
tabernacle, showed the way; he had seen the great sacrifices 
of the offerings of the heads of the tribes ; he had heard 
the silver trumpets blow the alarms, he had eaten of the 
food fallen from heaven. In brief, he had seen and heard 
so many things that could not have come from earthly 
powers that, throughout the thousands, none could believe 
more firmly in the greatness and goodness of God than 
Joshua the son of Nun of the tribe of Ephraim. 

It was when the tents of the great multitude were 
pitched in the Desert of Paran, near the land of Canaan, 
that Moses, by divine command, selected twelve men, one 
of each tribe to prevent his being accused of partiality, and 
when they stood before him, gave their orders thus : 

" Take a southerly course and cross the mountain. Go 
down into the country and make a complete circuit of it, so 
that you can give a full report. Examine the soil, the 
water and the timber, and bring samples of fruit, if you can.' 



JOSHUA. 59 

The appointed ones took supplies of food, buckled up 
their belts, fastened their sandals, and, staff in hand, bade 
good by to their friends, and crossed the wilderness. 
Joshua was one of these men. In hiding from the strange 
people in the thickets, in going from one plain to another, 
from lake to river, from low land to high, they spent forty 
days. They came together from their searches at the end of 
that time and returned homeward. Caleb and Joshua 
carried on a pole between them a bough of a grapevine, 
full of fruit, for the grapes were on the point of ripening at 
that season. 

The people flocked around them to hear the result of 
their scouting, and the mouths of the lookers-on watered as 
they saw the luscious fruit. 

" The land," said Caleb, speaking for all, Ci is exceedingly 
good. It will be excellent for pasturage and for growing. 
Here is some of the wild fruit of it." 

"Yes," said all the others but Joshua, "yes, it is a 
country flowing with milk and honey, but it contains many 
warlike tribes, and, besides, there is surely sickness in the 
air of the swamps. And the sons of Anak were seen by 
us, they are very, very huge men, so large that we were 
mere grasshoppers to them." 

A shudder ran through the throng. 

" Is not that true, Caleb, Joshua ;" demanded the other 
ten cunningly, to entrap them. 

" Yes, but the land is good " 

" Yes, or no — are not fierce giants there, in fear of whom 
we were fain to burrow under rocks like conies ?" 

" Yes," Joshua and Caleb were compelled to respond. 

" So, brothers," said the faithless scouts, " of what use 
is the land if it were matchless, if we die in attempting to 
wrest it from such terrible men ?" 

The whole mass groaned , and tears fell from men's eyes. 



60 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

They burst forth into one voice against Moses and his 
brother Aaron. 

" Would to heaven we had died slaves to Pharaoh in the 
Land of Egypt ! at least, there was enough and to spare of 
eatables. Would to God we had died in the desert before 
toiling so far! Oh, oh, oh! why have we been led here 
only to be slain by giants, whose very boys ten of our 
strongest men cannot hope to overcome I And our wives 
and little ones will also fall a prey! Better, better a 
hundred times the painful journey back to Egypt, be 
there what may !" 

Before such an outburst, Moses and Aaron bowed them- 
selves. Joshua and Caleb were wild with grief that the 
faithless ten should be believed before them, the faithful 
too. They rushed in among the excited people crying : 

" The Lord send us death, if the land we searched was 
not a garden for richness ! Do not go against the Lord, 
who promised us the land. Have no fear of the people, 
large or small, who are there. What are they, when God 
is for us."' 

But their own tribes even would not give them credence, 
and on their persisting to implore them and to assure them 
of their truth, the multitude took up stones and would 
have killed them. At that moment, all eyes were dazzeled! 
It was just dusk, and yet it was lighter than noonday. 
The glory of brightest effulgence had suddenly appeared 
,on and around the tabernacle. Hands dropped, heads 
bowed, and knees bent before that nimbus of heavenly 
light. 

And they heard Mose3 pray, and commune with a voice, 
whose words their ears were not holy enough to listen 
to. When the law-giver rose, it was to say, with the sol- 
emnity and sterness of God's mouthpiece, but with the. 
mournfulness of a man nevertheless. 



JOSHUA. 61 

" Oh, wicked, perverse people, who almost seem to try 
to tire out the inexhaustible patience and mercy of your 
Maker and Protector ! You who saw the promised land 
and who have lied of it against Him who would havo 
blessed you in it, you shall never more set e} ? es upon it. 
But your little ones shall view it, and shall remember their 
parents' punishment to all time forth, and as you have 
spoken falsely of your forty days 1 journey, for so many 
years you shall rove the desert. But the Lord, who is all 
truth, loves truth, for it is purity. He rewards the little 
child who never tells a falsehood with many gifts — He will 
reward the men who have borne faithful testimony. 
Joshua and Caleb shall see the promised land." 

It was night when Moses ceased speaking, but the halo 
around the ark had more than replaced the sun. That 
night, before the mid hours had come, there was groaning 
in some tents. The ten scouts who had brought false 
news, were suffering with the plague and scarcely survived 
till dawn. There was mourning, besides that, elsewhere, 
and the eyes were red with repentant tears that watched 
the sun rise next morning. Many, thinking to expiate 
their offence, banded together and before the dew was be- 
ginning to dry, hastened to climb up on the highlands bor- 
dering the plain, from the tops of which they sent word to 
Moses, that they were only too ready to obey and go down 
into the country to be given them. At the words, a num- 
ber more hurried over the plain from the camp to join the 
first ones. 

It was in vain that Moses called out to these and told the 
ethers : 

" Stop. Return. The Lord is our guide, when He bids, 
only then must we follow. His favor is not among you, 
but in the camp. Return." 

But they were heedless, and following one another like 



02 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

sheep, they straggled down the mountain side, to pick 
berries and drink the cool spring water. They were espied 
there by some of the Canaanites who lived within sight of the 
chain of hills, and who, with some of their neighbors the 
Amalekites, gathered together a force sufficient to fall upon 
them and butcher them while they were feasting. Few 
indeed, were those who contrived to hide in the woods 
and creep back in terror to the encampment. Luckiiy, 
they did this unseen, and the viotors did not suspect the 
presence of the larger body. 

The beholders of this lesson, with their mouths still 
stained with berry juice, were only too full of corrobora- 
tions of Joshua's description of Canaan, and he and Caleb 
were well treated by all in amends for their having doubted 
them. 

It was at Meribah, in their roamings, that they were 
parched by the sun and hot sand, and besought Moses to 
find them water to drink. Joshua saw Moses give a huge 
rock two strokes with his sanctified rod, when a spring of 
delicious water gushed forth. Joshua was foremost among 
those who defeated the Canaanites at Hormah. When the 
wanderers were downcast because they had to go around 
the Kingdom of Edom, and were punished for their lack of 
patience, it was Joshua, by Moses' orders, who set up the 
pole surmounted by a brazen serpent, at the sight of which 
those who had been bitten by vipers were healed of their 
poisonous wounds. Joshua was a commander of a troop 
when King Gihon of the Amorites came into the desert to 
destroy the Hebrews, who, on the contrary, defeated them 
and drove them out of their villages, in which they dwelt. 
Joshua was captain of the scouts who forced the remnant 
of the Amorites to fly and beg help of King Og of Bashan. 

This latter determined to punish the intruders. This 
king was a giant, and when he advanced there was much • 




JOSHUA. 63 

fear among the Hebrews, but Moses and Joshua en- 
couraged them and going out to meet them, killed him, his 
sons who fought beside him, and his principal captains. 
His kingdom became the Hebrews' possession. 

Through all these journeys and in all these conflicts, 
Joshua bore himself firmly and bravely ; there was not his 
equal among the thousands. By battle, by the heat of the 
sun, by illness, by visitation of God, not one except he and 
Caleb was left of the many who had wanted to return to 
Egypt and not proceed to the promised region. 

It was when they were within sight of Mount Nebo, that 
one day all were assembled. 

There were the women and the children in the outskirts 
of the mass ; the young men were behind the elders and 
the chiefs of the tribe, who were before Moses. Old as the 
latter was, for he was more than a hundred, he was still as 
clear of eye and erect of form as the man in his prime that 
he called out of the ranks and had stand beside him. 

"Brothers," said Moses, " you all know Joshua here at 
my right hand. I am twenty years more than a hundred 
and the work my good Master set for me to do, will soon 
be done. My brother Aaron is dead. Joshua — who can 
deny it ? — is the only one who is fit to be your leader. He 
is brave, strong, sensible, and more than all, first of all, he 
has learnt that obedience to the Lord is better than fine 
gold. He has the Laws I leave to study. He will be your 
chief, and in the sight of all, I bless him." 

Under the clear sky, — at their back, the desert, scene of 
their sufferings, in front, the tabernacle and the super- 
natural cloud hovering over it unaffected by the wind that 
tossed the men's and women's clothes and hair, and beyond 
it the land of their future joys — there in the barren sand, 
Joshua knelt, while the aged prophet extended his blanched 
hands over him. 



64 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

Moses went up to the highest peak of the mountains of 
"NTebo, called Pisgah, and surveyed the landscape. He saw 
how generous the Lord was to have chosen so peerless a 
spot for the dwelling-place of the weary-footed wanderers, 
to whose forefathers God had pledged the faith all their 
evil actions could not break. He lived but a short time af- 
ter he had descended, and in the night Joshua and another 
(who had sworn this to him) buried him. No one else 
ever knew where. 

The congregation had mourned three times ten days for 
the unequalled prophet, when the successor commanded the 
officers to get three days' provisions ready, for they were 
to make haste and cross the River Jordan. 

Joshua had already sent two men as spies as far as the 
royal city of Jericho. They had contrived to get as far as 
it when their provisions gave out and they had daringly 
entered the place and bought food of a stand near the city 
gates. But their strange look, and the money they offered 
brought suspicion upon them, and a mob hunted them 
through the streets. They made out in the dark to enter 
the house of a woman named Rahab, which was near the 
city walls. There they stayed. The king received news of 
their refuge, and he sent a body of armed men to the 
place. 

Rahab saw them coming and, guessing that some one had 
betrayed her and that the soldiers were destined for these 
she sheltered, she lost no time in taking the two Hebrews 
up to the top of her house. She happened to be drying 
some straw there, and under it, well spread, she concealed 
them. 

The soldiers burst in. but, when they roughly demanded 
that the men of Israel should be given up to them, Rahab 
said : 

" Indeed, were they the Hebrews? I thought they were 



JOSHUA. 65 

strangers. They did come here, two fellows, and they 
would stay till dark, when hearing the first horn blown for 
the ten minutes' grace before the gates were shut — they no 
sooner had asked me and I had no sooner told them what 
that meant, than they scampered away like sheep. I've no 
doubt you will overtake them, fast as they did go, if you 
delay no longer in their pursuit." 

The soldiers went in the road as far as the River Jordan, 
across which they saw the encampment of the Israelites. 
Meanwhile, Rahab had returned to the couple she had hid- 
den. 

" You can come out, now," said she. " Sirs," she con- 
tinued, when they had descended into her house, " sirs, we 
have heard of what god-like deeds your God has done for 
you, not alone in the Kingdom of Egypt, but against the 
mighty rulers Og and Gihon, and we have been terror- 
stricken. I believe, like many another, that your Lord is 
in all truth King over heaven and earth. I am not a good 
woman but I dearly love my mother and father and rela- 
tions. I am not good enough to meet death tranquilly, my- 
self. I beg you, therefore, to swear to me by your Al- 
mighty One, to spare me and mine, if you should march 
this way." <- 

u You are right in fearing we will come hither, woman," 
said one of the spies, " but fear nothing. Our life for yours 
if we fail in our pledge." 

Then she told them that, the gates of the city being 
closed after the pursuing party, no outlet for them but one 
existed. This was to let them down outside by a rope 
from her windows which overlooked the wall. 

" Rahab," said the spies, " when we come hither, sure to 
be victorious by the power of our irresistible Captain of 
Hosts, make all those whom you love come into your house 
and" — " here's a rag off my torn tunic," said one. " Yes, 



66 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

bind this," went on the other, " to this very window we 
are to escape by. Whoever dares harm a hair of the head 
of any soul whatsoever that is within these four walls, on 
him the judgment shall alight. But, if you are dealing 
falsely, this oath is no oath." 

44 1 am true, you see. Very well." 

She threw out one end of the rope, the other being fas- 
tened to her bed. The two Hebrews slid down and 
reached the ground in safety. As she had wisely warned 
them, they hid in the nearest mountains for two or three 
days, until the searching party had given up the fruitless 
chase of them and returned to Jericho. 

In the meantime, Rahab had watched them till they 
were out of sight, then she drew up the rope and tied the 
piece of cloth to the casement. 

The scouts passed over the stream, and reported all their 
journey to Joshua, assuring him that they would have an 
easy victory from the holders of the tracts to be theirs 
were faint of heart already. 

By three days after, all was ready for the advance. Sol- 
emnly the golden ark was lifted by its staves and, surround- 
ed by the priests bearing it, proceeded straight towards 
the River Jordan, which was more like a broad lake here 
than a stream, from its having overflowed its banks. On 
the other side glittered the roof-tops of the great city of 
Jericho. At a respectful distance behind the holy contain- 
er of the covenant and laws, marched the two tribes of Gad 
and Reuben and many of that of Manasseh, fully armed, to 
the number of forty thousand. Then followed the rest. 

The bearers of the ark were nearly at the brink, and 
still the waves rushed on as unaltered as ever. Some be- 
gan to doubt. But Joshua, uplifting his hand and pointing 
over the water, his armor clattering the while, spoke in an 
unfaltering voice : 



JOSHUA. . 6T 

"Brothers and people, still again will the Almighty 
evince His power towards us and under the very walls of 
the city which is doomed. Forward, priests, stop only when 
in the middle of the river." 

The bearers stepped on. Still the sheet foamed before 
them. Bat, just as the foremost pair put down their feet on 
what was covered with water, it fled before them. The 
current ceased to flow above the line of their passage, and, 
while the waters below rushed away tumultuously, leaving 
fish to flounder in the rising sun on the drying bed, the up- 
per part of the divided waves banked itself up no less re- 
strained in every drop than as if a strong stone embank- 
ment prevented its further motion. The priests, without 
damping the soles of their feet, passed on undelayed till 
they could halt in what had been the very depths of the 
broad river's channel. 

In awful silence, the armed vanguard, stilling the rattle 
of their mail and the clank of their sword sheaths, passed 
by. The others followed, their steps deadened by the 
sands, only now seeing daylight since the Creation. The 
very children were quiet on their hushed mothers' breasts, 
and the "beasts of burden and draught made no sound. By 
the orders of Joshua, a man from each of the twelve tribes 
took up a stone from the centre of the dried-up stream, 
and these stones were carried ashore to serve as proofs and 
remembrances for the future. And as many more rocks, 
but ones of far greater size, were piled up in the spot 
where the ark stood. 

When the blank towards the desert was left unpeopled, 
all having crossed from infant to aged, the ark was taken 
up and borne to the shore crowded with the Israelites, 
for Joshua had ordered the priests to resume their march. 
At the instant of the latters' touching the riverside, the 
wall of waves burst its invisible confines : with a crash as 



68 ' THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

if a gigantic hammer it fell forward on the sandy bottom 
it had been debarred from, and a thousand jets leaping into 
the air caught the sunbeams. Then, crusted with white 
and yellow foam, and roaring and seething, the liberated 
mass rolled on like lightning in all haste to overtake the 
sister billows it had been divorced from. And there the 
children of Israel stood, on the edge of the hostile territory, 
the road which they had so used, converted once more into 
a vast stretch of running water. 

But the Hebrews needed no road to retreat left open to 
them, for the news of so miraculous a passage spread 
through the country and all the country and the nations 
who heard of it were buried in affright. The Israelites set 
up their camp on the plains before Jericho, and a strong 
party went out foraging and returned with considerable of 
the last year's corn, taken from the granaries they had 
found abandoned, for the terrified owners had fled into the 
walled city for shelter. The manna ceased to be rained 
from heaven that day. 

As it grew dark, Joshua, without a single companion ex- 
cept his sword, put a dark cloth over his bright armor, and 
went stealthily to the City of Jericho, for the purpose of 
examining the enclosure and discovering its weak points. 
He had gone so close as to see the watchmen on the walls, 
but had not been perceived by them, and he had selected 
several spots where it seemed an entrance might be made. 
His task thus accomplished, he was returning to his friends, 
happy that he had been neither seen nor interfered with, 
when a man, with a drawn sword in his hand, rose sudden- 
ly before him. Joshua was too brave to be daunted, and 
believing the soldier to be alone and feeling sure that the 
city gates could not open sufficiently quick to send this per- 
son help, in case of a fight, he strode towards him, hia 
drawn sword in his grasp, and demanded : 



JOSHUA. C9 

*' Who goes there ? Come you from Israel or Jericho ?" 

The other answered, in a voice too musical for it to be 
even a woman's : " From the Lord of Hosts, whose captain 
I am !" 

And his face glowed with a light which nothing mortal 
could bear, and Joshua felt that he was speaking to an 
angel in human semblance and garb. He lowered his sword 
and bowed his face to the ground. 

" What has my Lord to say to his servant ?" 



In consequence of the celestial communication, Joshua 
had the city encompassed, and for seven days the follow- 
ing was done : A large body of armed men formed a van- 
guard and escort to the ark, before which, and behind them, 
were seven priests, having rams , horns which they contin- 
ually blew ; an equally strong rear-guard closed and de- 
fended the procession. The first day on which this train 
had gone quite around the city, the people of Jericho, ter- 
rified at any unaccountable act of the Israelites, crowded 
the walls and gazed with countenances aghast. But as the 
thing was done day after day, and nothing resulted, the 
ruder ones began to laugh and jest, and hootings, and cries 
and peals of merriment saluted the marchers and defiantly 
responded to the priests' trumpets ; and the sentinels aimed 
arrows at the Hebrews, whenever they chanced to come 
within shot from the inequalities of the ground. 

Very early on the seventh morning, this train drew the 
ring of circumvallation, with the difference that they made 
the circuit seven times, all to the mockery and merriment 
of the sentinels and the populace. They came round the 
*ast time. There was a dead silence, for some impalpable 
foreboding filled the air and awed the loudest brawler. The 
priests* trumpets blared. 



fO THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

" Shout !" cried Joshua, waving his sword. " Shout ! Our 
Lord has given us the city !" 

As he spoke, and as a powerful clamor burst forth from 
thousands of throats, the sentinels on the wall were seen 
to turn pale. They felt something shake under their feet. 
Cracking, in a hundred places, the wall shuddered like a 
long line of aspen leaves, and bowing like a palm under a 
simoom, its extensive line of thick stone and bricks fell flat 
fiom its base along the ground, burying under its ruins and 
in its closing chasms the watchmen and the spectators who 
had been let crowd on it. 

The triumphant cheers of the Hebrews was scarcely au- 
dible above the terrible crash, when a scream of fright and 
a groan of dismay arose from the besieged. They were 
given no time to recover from their amazement, for Joshua 
let loose his soldiers, crying : 

" Spare only Rahab the faithful and her house ! Upon 
them and strike !" 

Over the fragments of stone, through the gates burst 
open by the shock, crer the still trembling earth, and 
through the clouds of dust, darted the Israelites. The two 
scouts led one party straight to the dwelling of Rahab and 
hastily escorted her and her friends from the doomed city 
and left her in their own camps. The rest proceeded on 
their work of destruction. None could make head against 
them ; in ten times twenty places, the houses where refuge 
was taken, were shaken in the foundations and toppled 
over ; from ten times fifty other places smoke rose from 
fired houses. The flames spread, though there was blood 
enough spilt to quench them, and by nightfall, nothing was 
foft living of the city of Jericho except they spared Ra- 
h.ib and her family, and nothing of other objects except 



JOSHUA 71 

articles of the precious metals, which were kept for offer- 
ings to the ark. 

Losing no precious time after this victory, Joshua sent 
scouts to bring reports of the approaches to Ai, and of the 
condition of that city. They returned with word that 
the city appeared so weak that three thousand men would 
no doubt be able to make themselves masters of it, for only 
about twelve thousand souls was the whole population. 
But the citizens of Ai were more warlike than anticipated, 
for they not only met the onset of the party of Israelites, 
stoutly, but, after killing thirty in a hand-to-hand fight, put 
the rest to flight and pursued them so hotly that they were 
not ill-pleased to find themselves in safety among their 
friends. 

Joshua was angry at the defeat, for it would much injure 
his people if they came to be thought not wholly invulner- 
able, and he hastened to set thirty thousand men in the 
field against Ai, before the news should spread. These he 
sent away in the dark, with orders to keep near the city, 
and prevent messengers leaving it, but not to betray their 
presence. He followed with five thousand select troops in 
the morning. These were carefully and secretly ambushed 
beside the city, while Joshua, appearing with the larger 
party on the other side and front, made an attack. But 
when the enemy sallied out, his soldiers, obeying his in* 
structions, pretended to be panic-struck and giving away 
slowly at first, soon were in what seemed a flight. And 
the fighting men of Ai massed themselves in chase, and let 
themselves be drawn away far from their stronghold by the 
supposed fugitives. 

Joshua, who was on a hillock that commanded the plain, 
gave the order for his men to halt and wheel to face the 
pursuers. At the same time, he brandished high in air the 
spear he had in his grasp. A+ this signal the five thousand 



12 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

in ambush, scrambled out of the valley they had been lurk- 
ing in, and rushed into the undefended town, which was 
presently in a blaze in a number of points. 

On being attacked by the hares which had so unexpect- 
edly turned into lions, the soldiers of Ai were scarcely able 
to strike a blow, and on seeing the smoke roll in great 
black and red volumes from their homes, they fled them- 
selves along the same road they had exultantly traveled. 
But, ere they had retraced their steps as far as their own 
crumbling gates, from them the five thousand, flushed with 
the ruin they had made, waving torches and bloody blades, 
met them face to face, and thus hemmed in, they fell dead, 
each with his three or four wounds. Even the cover of 
the night was no shield to any, and the last fell on the 
heaps of his comrades in the light of the flaming city. 

The neighboring tribe of Gibeon, in dread of the Israel- 
ites hastened to yield to them. This excited the enmity of 
the five nearest rulers, and, under the counsel of the King 
of Jerusalem, they took the field to punish the Gibeonites 
who had thus tamely submitted. So great was their array, 
that the latter were in great alarm, and in all haste sent one 
of their principal men to Joshua. 

" You have promised, by your league with us, to see that 
we are saved from the penalty of making peace with you,* 
he said. " Come to us as quickly as you can, for all the 
kings of the valley are a-field and may at any moment fall 
upon us." 

" Have no fear," returned Joshua. " We all keep our 
oath. Go back and put courage in your countrymen's 
hearts. Say, Joshua is coming." 

Instantly, he gave out marching orders, and suddenly 
that very night, he reached the field, where the large army 
threatened the less, and, barely waiting to rest and place 
his men, he led the charge himself. The men of the 



JOSHUA. 13 

Kings of Hebron and Jarmuth fled and would have es- 
caped down the mountain side of Bethhoron, while their 
allies were holding the Israelites in check, but a dreadful 
shower of hail and meteoric stones rained upon them. 
Blinded with the lightning accompanying it, they lost their 
way, and, either struck down by the aerolites or tumbling 
into precipices, their dead bodies strewed the hillside no 
less thickly than their fellows on the plain. 

The noon was past, and yet the onslaughts and the re- 
pulses, the charges and rallies, the routs and the re-form- 
ings, went on undiminished in fierceness, but the Israelites 
muttered, remembering how their foes at Ai had nearly es- 
caped them in the gloom of dusk and fearing that here 
(where there were so many more) the enemy when routed, 
would be enabled to save themselves : " Would that the 
night were not coming." 

Tho great globe of the sun, half way from the zenith, 
was slowly lowering and sending more horizontally its long 
beams over the scene of slaughter. And the moon, more 
Bilvery and yet a little tinged with red, was appearing 
brighter and brighter over against it in the sky streaked 
slightly with vapor. 

It was then that Joshua stood up on a hillock among his 
generals and behind the long line of his men mowing a 
lengthy swathe of human stalks with the relentless sweeping 
of their dripping blades. Joshua let his sword hang by 
the thong round his waist, and clasping his hands and 
kneeling, he prayed. 

As his lips ceased moving, every spot of cloud melted 
from the sky. The sun stood still and never had its rays as- 
sumed such refulgence. The moon, as well, ceased to stir, 
and her milder beams illumined the eastern sides of ob- 
jects and prevented a shadow existing anywhere. There 
was a pause of awe as the strange, unheard-of light, ming- 
4 



74 THE BOYS OF THIS BIBLE. 

ling orange and argentine, diffused itself on the flushed 
cheeks of the Israelites and on the pallid ones of their an- 
tagonists. There was a silence, too, and scarcely was a hot 
breath heard, a slash of iron or splintering of wood, for a 
space. 

Then a deep murmur ran along the blanched lips of the 
foemen from the bowmen of Lachish to the spearmen of 
Eglon and to the swordsmen and javelinmen of Jerusa- 
lem. "Is this a man this Joshua, that the Maker of the 
sun and moon should grant his prayer ?" 

Their lines, already broken, split up still more and, each 
for himself, casting down their hacked and dinted arms and 
defenses, the allies sought un-found shelter from the fleet- 
footed Israelites. But death fell on all, and it was all the 
more horrid to breathe the last gasp with that unchanging 
and evenly vivid blending of sun and moonlight in the 
fading sight. 

" The great Captain is our leader this day !" was the war- 
cry of the Hebrews, before which sank the routed never to 
rise again. 

After this battle it was one uninterrupted course of de- 
feats to the enemies, and Joshua conquered the lands, alto- 
gether, of thirty-one kings. Joshua had spent his energies 
in such tasks, and he was, besides, loaded with years. 
Rest came to him and the people, and he proved himself as 
wise in peace as valiant in righteous war. Honored, and 
loved he died, having fulfilled a hundred and ten years, in 
no one hour of all of which had he ever doubted the 
power and kindness of the Being who had always heard 
his pra3 7 ers. 



GIDEON. lil 



GIDEON. 



The descendants of Israel were under the arms of the 
tribes of the east of Canaan. They had grown peaceful 
and had forgotten their Protector during the forty years of 
prosperity and tranquility that had been vouchsafed them. 
Every time of harvest, the Midianites or other robbers, col- 
lected their fighting men and made inroads upon Israel. 
Instead of making stand against them and attempting to 
repel them the Hebrews were satisfied to flee into secret 
caves, where they hid also their goods and grain. By de- 
grees, as they encountered no opposition, the Midianites 
brought with them their camels and cattle and fed them in 
numbers on the territory they occupied, and thus injured 
the future crops. From their place of concealment the Is- 
raelites, who had found during the seven years they had 
been thus visited, that the idols which they had erected, had 
naturally left their appeals unanswered, began to turn to 
the only God. Their prayers went up from the caverns and 
clefts in the rocks. They were heard. 

The robbers were hourly expected to come up through 
the valley and scour the country around the Abiezrites 
The people were in motion everywhere ; some hurrying to 



16 THE BOYS OP THE BIBLE. 

the mountains, others burying valuables in the ground, 
others vainly imploring help of their idols. A great num- 
ber of the latter were collected around the altar of the 
principal idol Baal in the sacred grove, offering up gifts to 
entreat his intercession. Joash, who had this place of wor- 
ship on his grounds, was there with his household. 

His son Gideon, who had kept his faith pure, had not 
been willing to join with them, but, on the contrary, was 
threshing wheat so as to have the grain in smaller compass 
for the hiding of it from the Midianites. As he labored 
every now and then he paused to regard the fair countoy, 
to search the horizon for a cloud of smoke or of dust which 
would signal the invaders' approach, to eye in indignation 
his father, friends and household, who were at their sacri- 
fices, for Gideon was of that disposition that he had al- 
ways desired resistance to be made to the yearly incursions, 
and he was annoyed to see so many men weaponless and 
ready only to flee for shelter at the first alarm. 

" Ah !" sighed he ; " if the Lord would only be with us 
as of old. But, I suppose, we deserve it. We must de- 
serve it, yes, for He is too just to have forsaken us in the 
hands of the robbers unless it was so. If I could only find 
young men willing to lend me a helping hand, I would call 
on His name, and see what the Midianites would say when 
an arrow should fly at them instead of we flying from them, 
and they should meet swords and shields, instead of 
plunder," 

The last words were yet on his lips when from the void 
air, he heard the Invisible speak. 

" Thou mighty man of valor, the Lord is with thee. Con- 
tinue with 3 r our heart thus fixed, and you shall save Israel. 
I have sent you." 

Gideon looked about him, but near him, within ear-shot 
there was not a living thing. He dropped his flail and, 



GIDEON. It 

knowing that the ground was hallowed at the moment by 
something more than natural, he knelt with bowed head. 

" Oh, my Lord, for it is Thou alone who deigns to speak 
to me, I am but poor, and my family is of little rank in the 
tribe of Manasseh. Wherewith, saving thy substance, am 
I to rescue our land." 

" The Lord whose angel I am chooses his weapons where 
he wills. The earthen jar is often set above the golden 
vase. Gideon of Manasseh, you are called. Not alone, but 
with the Lord's your arm shall strike." 

" Oh, how I thank you that I so humble, should have 
found grace in thy all-seeing sight," said Gideon, rising. 
" Let me offer you, the messenger, my present ere you go." 

And the answer was : " I will tarry till you come again." 

With quick feet Gideon darted into the house, and speed- 
ily prepared a kid and some unleavened cakes. As'he was 
told to do. The young man laid the offering on a rock, and 
poured the broth of the' meat upon the rough face. As he 
receded and knelt, he saw a winged figure touch, with a 
silvery spear in his resplendent hand, only less lustrous 
than his radiant face and transparent garment, the gifts. 
A fire spread all over the stones and consumed the meat and 
cakes. When Gideon looked up, the angel was gone. 

The Midianites did not come near that district during 
that day and, in fear and trembling, the people of Ophra re- 
posed, not without posting watchmen. 

Gideon was one of the sentinels around his fathers farm. 
He led off, in the night, ten of the serving-men who stood 
on guard, into the sacred grove, and, while he set them at 
work chopping down the trees ; he himself pushed off the 
idol Baal from the pedestal, and destroyed it and the altar. 
Then he built with other stones a new altar, on which ho 
sacrificed a young bullock which he had had led with his 



T8 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

little band. He did this work in the night so as to be un- 
interrupted by his father or the citizens. 

Morning came. The people ran about in amazement to 
spread the news that the dreadful Baal had permitted his 
image to be debased, and his altar overthrown, and the 
wood cut down. They thought that lightning from heaven 
had performed the work. But, as soon as they had noticed 
that there were marks of axes on the broken trees, they be- 
lieved that the Midianites had penetrated there with a small 
party and accomplished the sacrilege. This idea, in turn 
was removed by the sight of the new altar, and the re- 
mains of the still smoking animal. 

" Who has brought this evil ?" was the question in every- 
body's mouth. " Who dare to worship a new deity to the 
prejudice of the mighty Baal ?" 

To this the answer came soon : " Gideon, the son of 
Joash." 

" Considering that the appearance of the enemy was im- 
minent from the protection of the idol being removed by 
6uch an insult and injury to it, the people, in anger as great 
as their fear, hastened to Joash's house, where, with fierce 
shouts, they demanded that he should give up to them his 
son, so that he might be put to death in expiation of the 
contempt he had shown to the object of their worship. 
But Gideon had already informed his father of all. 

" Friends, brothers of my tribes," said the latter, " do 
you really plead for Baal? You know how I have contri- 
buted to his fame and glory by my many sacrifices, so I 
have some right in him. The grove stands on my lands, too. 
But I have seen my folly, friends. Baal is no god. If he 
were, would he have let a boy like my son fling him down 
in the dust, would he, if he were the Incomparable, let a 
rival be set up above him ? No, no, a hundred times, no. 



GIDEON. 19 

Let Baal fight his own battles. Let us, nman while, rally in 
the name of the real God of our fathers, who showed so 
many times His undeniable power." 

Like himself, the Israelites had their eyes opened. 

The Midianites and their allies had meantime marched 
on as usual without even a skirmish, but they were 
surprised when come to the borders of Abiezrites to see 
Joash and Gideon mustering a force against them. A sight 
so unprecedented did more than surprise them, it made 
them hesitate and fear. They encamped in the vale of 
Jezreel. The news spread through the tracts not yet mo- 
lested by the ravages that Gideon had revived the ancient 
faith, that he was standing at bay against the encroachers, 
and that he called upon all his fellow countrymen to add 
their strength to his. It was like a flame among tow. Taking 
courage, the armed men began to pour in from all direc- 
tions, and soon Gideon was at the head of an army of more 
than thirty thousand. The sight of such an array made 
the Midianites remain where they were on the hilly side of 
the valley. 

The Israelites outnumbered the intruders as three to one, 
but the enemy were not too much alarmed at them for they 
conjectured that forty years of peace would not have made 
them very formidable. They did not dare advance from 
their strong position, but they did not think of retreating, 
they dreaded men at arms, those simple shepherds. 

Meanwhile Gideon had considered. His design was not 
the mere beating back of the foe, which seemed very pos- 
sible, but the re-installation of the true God. If he should 
descend on the valley with his deluge of men and over- 
power the Midianites, it was to be believed that his follow- 
ers would proudly lay the victory to their own numbers 
and prowess. But he wanted to prove that success came 



80 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

from the righteousness of the cause and not by its banded 
thousands. 

But first, as it was a great responsibility, this leading so 
many men to death and pain, perhaps, he wished to be sure 
of his mission. So, at night, withdrawing himself from the 
camp-fires and the outposts he had visited, he knelt in a re- 
tired spot to entreat a proof. 

" Oh, gracious Lord, I fear to take upon myself in youth 
so broad a burden, even in thy hallowed name. If I am 
still to be honored with thy task, may I ask this test, oh 
Lord ? See I tear from my sheepskin coat a scrap of fleece. 
"It is dry. I bury it in the ground. If the dew shall fall 
all round about, and yet if it shall only damp the wool and 
leave dry the earth around, I shall know I am yet favored, 
and that Israel will be saved." 

He did so. When he rose early and hurried to the spot, 
he disinterred the piece of his coat. The ground was un- 
wetted for yards around except by his own footprints, for 
the grass was soaking by which he had come. But the 
fleece was heavy in his hands and he wrung drops from it 
a whole bowl full. 

A day passed. At night once more, he knelt. 

" Merciful Lord, who is slow to anger, let not thy wrath 
be enflamed against thy servant. Only this once, this once 
only, do I venture to doubt. Let me test again with the 
fleece. I bury it. Let the fleece be dry, and the ground 
wet, if thou wilt, my Master." 

The dew fell heavily as rain that evening ; the sentries 
could scarcely keep the fires a-blaze from the sheets of 
moisture ; their coats and the tents were glistening with the 
fine watery drops. But, when Gideon took up the wool it 
was dry as if from air even. Yet the earth surrounding 
the little grave which it had occupied was soft with the 
abundance of the fall. 



GIDEON. 81 

Then Gideon, at ease, proceeded to reduce his force. He 
proclaimed that those need not stay in face of the foe who 
were afraid, or were more urgently required home. Two- 
and-twenty thousand of the host took advantage of the 
permission and left the camp. Of the ten thousand left, 
Gideon determined to take only the hardier ones. To find 
these out without loss of time, he set the whole of them in 
motion as against the Midianites still on the other hillside. 
In going down the mountain, they had to cross a torrent 
which ran pretty deeply from the heavy dews of the previ- 
ous night, which had filled to overflowing the spring of 
Harod. The array stopped on the bank to drink. 

Gideon watched his men with a careful eye. Some de- 
licately looked around for vessels in which to scoop up the 
water and carry it to their mouths ; others took pieces of 
bark and hollow stones as cups, those that had vessels used 
them, and those who had none formed ones out of 
their joined hands. But the soldiers whose minds were 
set upon action, had no such carefulness, but went down on 
hands and knees to the water and drank in that way, or by 
lapping it up like a dog. These Gideon chose. 

He halted his host, and picked out the men he had ob- 
served, who amounted to nearly three hundred. 

It came on dark. When the shadows had deepened and 
not only gathered thickly in the depths of the vale, but as- 
cended like palls to the tops of the hills, Gideon, with only 
one man, left his friends and stealthily glided down into the 
valley. Keeping in the darkness, the two crept along to 
the mainbody of the Midianites which was on the Hill of 
Moreh. By lying on the ground and dragging themselves 
along like serpents, their swords muffled up in their scab- 
bards with their cloaks to prevent a sound, the two spies 
had the fortune to slip within the hostile lines between two 
of the oamp-fires. These watch-fires extended to a great 
4* 



82 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

distance, for they hedged a very large army, from the Mid- 
ianites having been reinforced by other scattered bodies of 
the plunderers who had rallied around them on the news of 
the Israelites having made a stand. The low flames fell 
upon the slumberers and on the watchers who kept guard 
over the immense herds of cattle stolen from the abandon- 
ed farms, and over heaps of pillaged goods. 

Gideon's eyes flashed as he saw what an amount of dam- 
age the robbers had already done. But some words 
spoken near him drew thither his and his companion's at- 
tention. Two soldiers were asleep quite near where they 
had crawled and hidden, but, though Gideon had not mado 
a sound, one awoke. 

" Wake up, man of Oreb," said he to his comrades, " by 
the head of my father, but I have had a strange vision; 
would you believe it, I thought some how or other that a 
great cake of that unleavened bread that these sheepish 
warriors the Israelites used to oifer up to the God they tell 
so many fables about, rolled down the hill yonder where the 
Hebrews have been massing themselves this last week, 
down into this valley, and up into our camp, where it ran 
against our chief's tent, which was struck to the ground, 
as low as if a simoom had swept over it. Ha, ha, what 
could have filled my head with such a fancy ?" 

" Well, I don't know, comrade," said the other, but more 
seriously, " it would seem to mean nothing less than that 
this youth Gideon, who is reported to be over the host 
opposing us, is to get the better of us." 

And they began to wake their fellows, and tell them of 
the dream. As they interpreted it, each to his pleasure 
but most all like the second soldier, Gideon stole away 
with his follower and regained his command. He awoke 
all the thousands and bade them be in readiness, while he 
called together his three hundred. These he divided into 



GIDEON. 83 

three companies, and made each man take a trumpet of 
metal or horn, an empty earthen jug, and a lamp. They lit 
the latter but hid the flame in the pitchers, as they moved 
cautiously down through the bushes mantling the mount- 
am side. 

He led them as close as he dared to the line of Midianite 
sentries. Then he gave the orders, and added : " When I 
blow my trumpet, which you will know from its silver 
tone, be that your signal to carry out my orders and raise 
the war-cry. In the Lord be your trust, every man I" 

They scattered thereupon and filed off right and left, till 
they found an outer line to that of the enemy's outposts in 
a half-circle around their front. For a moment the silence 
reigned as completely as the gloom. The Midianites, still 
seeing the Hebrews moving about in the glimmer of their 
own fires on the opposite eminences, were far from dream- 
ing that part of them were already below the height. 

All of a sudden, directly in their faces in the centre, 
there split the stilly air a long tantara from a silver trump- 
et. The watchers started from their semi-sleep on their 
spears, and looked and listened. On all sides before them, 
many blasts arose from behind rock, bush and tree, the 
prolonged, deep bellow of a cow's horn, the hoarse rattle 
of a ram's, the harsh clang of a brazen bugle, and leader of 
all, the silver-voiced again. And as the vale was past, 
so the darkness disappeared, for on either side and before, 
lights gleamed out and darted fierce rays after the fugitive 
shadows. And to add to all, an indescribable crash deafened 
the ear. The men of Gideon had shown the horns 
held in their right hands, had dashed the pitchers against 
trees and stones, and swinging the unveiled lamps over their 
heads with their left hands, united to cry like one man for 
unity and like the thunders for force : 

" The sword of the Lord and of Gideon is upon you !" 



84 



THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 



A panic as universal as powerful seized the whole host 
of the invaders. Starting up out of sleep, and seeing the 
advancing row of flashing lamps with half-opened eyes, they 
might well be startled. In the far-off, as well, a mighty 
echo had caught up the war-cry, and — as the thousands of 
Israelites sped down the hill-side through the splashing 
surface of the waste water of Harod's spring — they lifted 
up the shout : 

" The sword of the Lord and of Gideon is upon you !" 

Not a man dreamt of resistance or delay. No thought 
of plunder, horse, camel, or friend. Self alone was the 
motto, in that headlong flight. They pressed themselves 
into narrow defiles, they trod down one another. The weak- 
est went to the wall and were pushed over precipices. 
They mistook their own fleeing comrades for the pursuers, 
and, the swords flashing out in the gloom and the spears be- 
ing couched and the bows being bent by tremulous fingers, 
they slew one another by scores, and did not find out the 
error. Besides, a shower of stones and darts began to fall 
upon the rearmost, and these latter rushed on and prevented 
the rallying no one thought of attempting. 

There never had been so great a defeat since the days of 
Joshua. The border of the Israelites was extended far in- 
to the enemies' territory by the victories that followed. 
When these things had been accomplished, the Hebrews, 
more grateful to the visible instrument than to the invisible 
but Evident Power, desired Gideon to rule them. 

" Brothers," said he, " only the Lord should be over you. 
I will not take the government, nor shall my son succeed 
me, as you wish. If you are determined to show your 
gratitude to me rather than to Him from whom were the 
victories, let every one of you give me the ear-rings from 
the slain foernen." 

With the precious metal thus obtained, Gideon made a 



<*IDEOtf. 85 

rich girdle for the priests. But he would not receive any 
reward throughout the forty years of peace and happiness, 
during which he lived contented by seeing the pleased 
country around him looking up to the King of Heaven 
alone, Gideon spent his Ions and blessed years. 



8ft THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 



SAMSUJf. 



Chosen People as were the Israelites, they murmured 
under good rulers and were very dissensious, each of the 
twelve tribes claiming superiority, and, though heaven had 
evinced its power on their behalf as it had never done to 
any nation before, yet they gave to it neither praise nor 
gratitude. Henoe they had removed from them the shield 
which they did not recognize, and, after the short rules of 
certain chiefs who succeeded the great Gideon, their coun- 
try fell into the hands of their continual foe, the Philis- 
tines, at whose mercy they remained forty years. 

There was a man named Manoah, who was of the tribe 
of Dan, and lived at Lorah. His wife was one day in the 
house, alone with her little boy, an infant in arms, when a 
figure in the form of a man, but with a radiant face, ap- 
peared before her. She was dumb with terror and sur- 
prise. But he smiled for her to abate her fright, and said : 

" Woman, take heed. This your child is a Nazarite from 
his birth. He shall free Israel from the Philistines." 

She raised her amazed eyes, but, as he spoke, he was 
gone. When her husband returned, bearing news of yet 
another neighbor being despoiled of his ox, or grain, or 
grapes by some over-riding Philistine who was task-master 
over that part of the country, he found his wife agitated 
and contemplating her little son with a singular expression. 
She told him of the interview. i 

Manoah had no sooner heard than he prayed that once 



SAMSON. 81 

again his humble house might be honored and blessed by a 
visitation from on high. And again the angel did appear 
in the sight of the woman, who was in the field this time. 
She ran to the pasture where Manoah was, whom she led 
without delay to where the holy messenger w T as standing. 
They bowed low. 

Manoah, with bent head, asked : 

" How shall we treat the child thus devoted to heaven." 

" I have said. He is to be a Nazarite." 

Manoah rose with reverence. He saw the vision was 
not of the earth, but still he did not know its degree. 

" Stay, I pray thee," he said, " let us detain you till we 
serve up a tender young kid for 3'our entertainment. We 
are poor, but the messenger of good tidings should surely 
have our best." 

But the spirit said, smiling celestially. 

" I wait, but not to partake of your fare. Not to me, but 
to the Lord, should you offer the kid, as a sacrifice." 

" What is 3'our name ?" said Manoah, " we would honor 
you when these things shall have happened." 

" My name is not for earthly lips to pronounce. Honor 
alone the Lord !" 

Manoah lost no time ; he killed a kid, took a rock for the 
altar, lit the fire and put on it the offering. As he did this 
to the Lord, and the blaze rose from the delicate fat of the 
young animal, the angel-messenger ascended and vanished 
in the flames that shot up. Manoah and his wife fell on 
their faces and prayed. 

" We shall surely die," said the man, " we and our little 
one, for it is one from heaven that our eyes have gazed on." 

" Nay," said the wife, " if it had been the Lord's will to 
have sent us death, He would scarcely have been pleased 
to have received the burnt offering from us, nor would these 



88 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

things of the future have been revealed to us. No, we 
must do the bidding." 

The boy, whom they called Samson, was brought up ac- 
cording to the laws of the Nazarites, that is to say he was 
never to drink wine or any other strong drink, or vinegar 
made of wine, or grapes, fresh or dry ; or eat anything 
made out of the grapevine, from bark to bud. And he was 
never to shave or let any sharp instrument remove a hair 
of his head. Devoted to the Lord, then, he grew up to 
man's estate. He had so far shown nothing of the future 
mission on which he was, except that his countrymen had 
often heard him speak boldly against the Philistines, their 
masters, and that he was remarkably strong. 

In a visit of his to Timnath, he saw and fell in love with 
a Philistine girl. When he returned, he insisted on his 
parents' going and asking her in marriage to him. 

" But, Samson," said his father, " can you, who so deeply 
inveigh against the oppressors really mean to espouse one 
of their daughters ? Is there no woman among your sis- 
ters of the tribe or among all your people, who deserves 
you better ?" 

But Samson was resolved. 

" Father, 1 have reasoned in this same way with myself. 
All I can say is, she delights me — get her for me, I pray 
you." 

He accompanied his father and mother to Timnath. In 
the vineyards of that place, Samson heard a lion roaring, 
and bidding the old couple proceed without him, he 
turned back without their suspecting his intentions. He 
had not retraced many of his steps before the roaring grew 
louder. He replied by taunting words, which, whether 
the boast understood or not, had the effect of bringing him 
over through the vines he had been down-treading, towards 



SAMSON. 89 

the man defying him. His roars changed to growls, and 
then he crouched and sprang. Samson eluded his leap, 
rushed on in turn as the disappointed beast rolled over in 
the dust, and, first breaking his jaws by happily catching 
them open and forcing the lower from its socket, tore him 
to pieces by sheer strength of arm. Leaving the body 
there in the hedge, he quickened his pace and overtook 
his parents, to whom he did not explain his delay. 

The preparations for the wedding went on smoothly, and 
the feast was being made ready. In one of the lulL of the 
preliminaries of the bridal Samson, in walking the fields, 
was led by curiosity to turn aside and see whether the 
carcase of the rent lion had yet been removed by the la- 
borers of the vineyard. It had not, but lay there. But, 
singularly enough, a swarm of bees had established their 
queen in the open mouth, and had already erected several 
galleries of wax and honey. Samson gently removed a 
large honeycomb and was eating on the road while return- 
ing. He gave part to his father and mother, but still said 
nothing as to what he had done or as to how he had ob- 
tained the delicacy. 

The guests of the Philistine wife were some young men, 
besides her parents. When heated with the feasting, they 
did not hesitate to boast of the superiority of their race 
over the Israelites whom they had subdued. They were 
not satisfied with claiming a more warlike disposition as 
shown by their victories, but went farther and spoke 
vauntingly of their greater excellence of mind. Samson did 
not notice their discourtesy in so speaking at this his table, 
but at the first opportunity to slip in a word, said : 

" My friends, I am but a simple Danite myself, yet I do 
not feel disposed to grant you, our masters, everything. I 
have even on my mind a little riddle, which I believe will 
distress even a Philistine's acute intellect." 



90 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

The voice of all arose to demand the puzzle, all the tones 
confident of victory before they knew the extent of the 
action to be won. 

" Ah, stay," said Samson, " let us make our assertions 
appear better based on our beliefs. I am willing to take 
the risk thus, albeit I am not rich : I give you the seven 
days of my marriage festivities. If you shall have guessed 
the dark saying before or by that time, well, I will give you 
each a suit of clothes and a fine sheet of linen. But if you 
do not find it out, well again, it is you who will give me 
each a change of raiment and a sheet of fine linen." 

" Agreed, agreed," cried the whole thirty of them, smiling 
eagerly, " put forth your puzzling Saying." 

" My little simple riddle," said he. " Out of the eater 
came forth meat. Out of the strong came forth sweetness." 

A number of hasty answers burst forth at the moment, 
but Samson shook his head to each. 

Before the third day, they had found out that their wits 
were far from being capable of solving the mystery. As 
they hated more to have to confess their inferiority to a 
Hebrew, than the amount of the forfeit, they had recourse 
to secret mesns. They had an interview with Samson's 
wife, in which they threatened her. 

" You must by your allurements obtain the key of your 
husband's enigma. If you will not promise so to do, re- 
member, we will fire your father's house and he and you 
will perish in the ruins. " 

In deadly fear, she passed her word. Indeed, when her 
husband next came to her, she was in tears, and when 
asked why, had no other reply than : 

" No, you do not love me ! you would not be afraid to 
confide in me if you did. Here you have made a great 
riddle, and though you see how curious I am about it, still 
you will not impart its meaning to me." 



SAMSON. 91 

M Bat," returned Samson, " I have not spoken of it to my 
dear father and mother. So it is no great harm that I 
should not have told you." 

But she would not listen to reason, then, instead of 
the rest of the feast days passing dancingly in the sunshine 
of smiles, nothing on her part was but the show T ers of tears. 
On the last day, to make her happy once more, Samson 
told all. She, of course, transmitted the valuable mystery 
to those who had menaced her. 

No wonder, hence, that before the sun set on the last of 
the seven days, the thirty Philistines could reply : 

"What is sweeter than honey? what is stronger than a 
lion?" 

" The grace of God is far sweeter than honey, and His 
power is more than a multitude of lions," muttered Samson, 
but he only said aloud : " you are right, and you have won, 
but — if you had not taken my flower, your garden of wis- 
dom would nut have so blossomed out." 

He went over to the town of Askelon and, there having 
a quarrel with some Philistines, who recognized him as a 
Hebrew who had often preached resistance to their rule, 
he had to fight. He slew thirty and drove the rest into 
the town. With the clothes of the killed, he returned. 
He gave them to the cheating winners of the wager, but 
withheld the promised sheets. They asked for no more, 
conscious as they w r ere that the powerful Hebrew had full 
knowledge of their trickery. But, angered, Samson spoke 
to them, and to his wife harshly, and returned to his fath- 
er's house in wrath. For his part, the father of his wife 
took advantage of the moment, and hastened to give away 
his daughter's hand in marriage to a Philistine, notwith- 
standing the solemn vows she had entered into. 

When the harvest was gathered, and Samson, 
disengaged from helping his father, for his great 



92 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

strength was only too useful on the farm, remembered his 
wife, and in spite of the danger in such a journey, he, with 
a tender young kid as a present, went down to Timnath. 
But his father-in-law would not let him into the house, 
would not give him a word or a look on his divorced wife, 

" You know how you acted on that day of your nuptials. 
Was I wrong to believe that you hated her ? So I gave 
her to one of her own race, breaking the bonds which you 
had already snapped, so that she might make the new 
ones." 

Samson lifted his brawny arm to heaven : 

" As my Lord liveth !" said he, " you and yours shall re- 
gret this !" 

" Nay, nay," said the other. " Listen. She has a sister, 
younger and fairer than she. Take her, I pray you, take 
her to wife." 

" I loved her, not because she was fair, but because she 
was that woman she was. I care for no other," said Sam- 
son, and, conquering his prompting to make a forcible en- 
trance into the house, he turned away to walk off his sad- 
ness in the fields. 

As he wandered through the vineyards, whose fruit was 
ripening without requiring the presence of workmen, the 
sight of some foxes writhing in the sprung jaws of the 
traps set prevent them making the vintage on their own 
account, gave a new idea to his revenge-filled mind. Cut- 
ting up his outer coat into strips (it was strong linen and 
made passable cords), he went over the yards right and 
left, and collected all the entrapped beasts, traps and all. 
He made a pile of dry brush and besmeared the sticks with 
the ooze from the fir trees. Then, with the lines he had 
twisted, he tied the foxes together in pairs, by the tails, 
and, attached to the point of union a bunch of the brush- 
wood. Then firing this, he gave liberty to the terrified 



SAMSON. 93 

animals. So with them all, which made a hundred and fifty 
brace. 

Alarmed, in pain, snarling and snapping at one another, 
the beasts, at first rolling over one another and fighting to 
get loose, found that impossible and careered over the 
country, too much maddened to think of seeking safety in 
their burrows. Some scented water in the ponds filled 
against the watering of high lands, and dashed through 
fields towards it. Their flaming appendage scattered its 
sparks and darted its lambent tongues among the grain, 
dry, ripe, and ready for the sickle. This flamed up like 
tinder, and whole masses of it were consumed. Other 
foxes carried the destructive element through the vineries, 
of the trees of which they kindled the dried bark and 
ruined the grapes which bursted in the heat and scattered 
their hissing pulp on the ground. Other poor sufferers, wild 
with agony at their hair being frizzled on their sides, rolled 
into the first shelter, as granaries, stables and houses, and 
were like so many living torches. Still others, their re- 
sinous flambeaux unextinguished, sought to quench their 
tormenting burden by rolling on the damp ground under 
the olive trees, but these caught fire and blazed with their 
oily sap like so many gigantic candlesticks. 

The Philistines had to turn out in throngs to prevent the 
spread of a conflagration ignited in more than a hundred 
points at once. Searches were made for the incendiary, 
for the foxes, dead with exhaustion, terror and burns, were 
found here and there. When the story was told and it was 
discovered that Samson was the author of the evil, fierce 
and high ran the invectives against him. But when, in 
turn, they learnt that the reason of this revenge had been 
because the Timnite had refused him his wife and given 
her to another, the Philistines were too just not to seek to 
exact the penalty from the proper person. In a mob, blind- 



94 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

ed with passion, the farmers who had lost in fruits, trees, 
and houses by the incendiary, rushed on the dwelling of 
Samson's father-in-law, to which they applied the torch, in 
obedience to the wicked law — to which the Golden Rule is 
as the sun to darkness — do unto others as others have done 
to you. In the flames perished not only the father, but the 
innocent daughter. They would not let her save herself, 
but pushed her back into the consuming house. 

For their cruelty Samson said : " Although you have done 
justice, yet you have blotted it out with the unwarrantable 
crime you have committed. I will be avenged on you." 

The lords of the land heard this menace against them, 
and, ever ready to silence a complaining voice in the dread 
of its finding too many echoes from a burdened people, 
they sent a force, somewhat numerous on account of the 
highest opinion of his unparallelled strength being but too 
well grounded, which by means of spies, found out his 
whereabouts, one day when he was gathering wind-broken 
wood in a forest. They crept stealthily towards him, from 
all directions, for they had taken the precaution to form a 
ring around him, sheltering themselves with the trees, and 
hushing even their breaths, and holding their sword- 
sheaths in their hands to prevent them striking anything 
and betraying them. When within as great a proximity 
to the woodman as they dared venture, they halted, with 
beating hearts and bated breath, to await the signal for 
them to discover themselves. It was not until Samson had 
bound his monstrous faggot, and placed it, as lightly as 
another might a feather, upon his broad shoulders, that the 
leader of the Philistines judged it the best moment for the 
attack. 

A number sprang out from around the huge oaks in his 
face, ten at either hand, and a score or more leaped over 
the leaf-strewn ground on him from behind. Encumbered 



SAMSON. 95 

as he was, as many hands as could be laid on him tightened 
their hold where they grasped. 

An exultant shout burst from the armed men. But, fear- 
less of the swords flashing in his eyes, of the threats, of 
the fingers clutching at his throat, Samson, recovering from 
his surprise, shook his shoulders. The great bundle of 
wood rolled off and crushed its way down among the 
assailants from behind. He extended his arms right and 
left, and the men, stout warriors as they were, were spurn- 
ed from him as a stag shakes off the dewdrops from its 
neck. The daring soldiers who had caught him by the 
throat and breast, hung on and still hung on, but his hands 
— those hands of steel, as it were, through which circulat- 
ed a power more than human to impel their motion — 
dashed off with force beyond resistance. Samson stooped, 
perhaps fortunately for him, for three or four hurriedly- 
darted javelins hurtled over his bowing head and buried 
their points out of sight in the earth or trunks of trees, 
their poles, thus suddenly arrested in their onward flight, 
snapping off like dry willow twigs. The Philistine soldiers 
had been especially cautioned not to harm the strong man, 
but to capture him alive, but those who had aimed the pro- 
jectiles had been the ones hurled from him so violently, 
and the pain in their bruised and displaced limbs had made 
them forget their orders. 

Samson had bent merely to pluck a thick piece of a 
branch bound up in his bundle of firewood. With this in 
his hand, "he rose. With it whirling round his head he ad- 
vanced, instead of awaiting their onset. A semi-circle of 
shields and blades, with a spear-head here and there clust 
ered before him, the javelin-men being behind the front 
ranks, and restrained by their officers. Simple death to the 
preternatural Israelite would be nothing : of so mighty a 
rebel should be made an example ; tortures, all that the 



96 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

human mind could devise of agonies being in them, were 
the only punishment beseeming him. 

In vain a blade rose over its owner's head to parry the 
lifted club, but this weapon was superior to opposition, 
and by the very steel itself, driven down into his skull, the 
soldier died. In vain a shield was planted before its mas- 
ter's breast, crushing the thick bull's hide target, studded 
though it was with brass nails, like a mushroom, the wood- 
en bar stretched the man with shattered ribs on the earth 
beside fallen brothers, the buckler, with its edges arching 
round like a trough, dented into the large wound. In 
vain a dozen spears crossed into a network of deadly points, 
it only needed the bough to describe a circle, and, while the 
steel heads flew into the tops of the young trees, the splin- 
tered staves, scarcely held in the benumbed hands, lowered 
with a tremor. As a shepherd's boy with an osier's switch, 
cuts down the budding tops of noxious weeds, so Samson 
felled his enemies. The bravest of the remainder tired 
themselves out with sudden circuits and charges on that 
one man's sides and rear, but, always defeating those who 
faced him, in time to turn, he was found at each and every 
attempt, fronting the wily foe. 

At last, sick of such slaughter, and his club, barked 
hacked, splintered and broken even, by the many wardings 
off from instruments of steel and iron, thinned down into a 
mere stump in his hand. He heard the officers, regardless 
themselves of anything but immediate revenge, cry hoarsely: 

" On the accursed son of Dan ! Death, death to the Israel- 
ite ! To your spears and arrows !" 

" As they rallied, dropping swords and heavy spears, to 
seize instead their bows anof darts, and as they fitted arrows 
to the strings and poised their lances, Samson, dropping his 
worn-out weapon from his hand not worn-out, leaped into 
their very midst, and, then he retreated, unchecked, for 



SAMSON. 97 

they were far, even from him, expecting such temerity, he 
held, covering his broad chest in either hand, a man 
whose gilt breast-plate and plumed helmet proclaimed 
them the chief surviving officers of the remainder of the 
band. 

" Stay, stay !" cried some to prevent their friends from 
letting slip their bolts and from casting the levelled darts, 
" it is our captains the rebel has seized." 

As they stared and stood in indecision, Samson, still 
making living defenses of the futilely struggling captains, 
disappeared, walking backwards in the wood. Once out 
of bowshot, he disarmed his captives, dropped them into 
a large pit which had been a wild goat trap, and went his 
way. When the Philistines, guided by their officers' shouts, 
arrived upon the spot, they could see nothing of the He- 
brew champion. It is true there was none so vindictive as 
to overcome his terror and wish very heartily to confront 
once more him who had displayed before them unrivalled 
prowess and address. They took up their disabled com- 
rades, who were not killed outright, on litters made of 
branches, and took them to the chief post of the military 
guarding the district. While some went back as guides to 
care for the dead, others were pilots to a strong detachment 
which went with all speed straight to Manoah's house. 
But his son was not there, nor had he been seen since he 
had gone to the forest just after the heat of noon. They left 
a guard there, but they watched in peace : Samson was not 
seen by them. 

The truth was he had gone, during the night, through, 
the neighboring district of the tribe of Judah, avoiding 
the Philistine quarters, for fear of the sentinels, and the 
villages of his brothers for fear of their dogs giving the 
alarm. He reached the uncultivated country, and took 
refuge in the Hill of Etam. But as he had come too hastily 
5 



98 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

to be supplied with food, he had to come down into the 
valley land and beg wherewithal to eat of his countrymen. 
He did not tell them anything of the late conflict, or make 
any reply to the questions put to him and caused by his 
torn garments, from which he had been unable to remove 
all traces or all the blood from the action. 

A messenger, with an account of the affair, having come 
to the land of Judah, as to all other neighboring parts of 
the governed conquest, they set inquiries afoot there as to 
the hiding-place of the fugitive. They were overjoyed, 
therefore, when at almost their first words, they were in- 
formed that Samson dwelt on the hill-top quite near. With 
a large armament, the Philistines marched that way. At 
the village under the mountain-side, the frightened people 
came out to meet them and prevent the evil which they 
feared so mighty a corps portended. They were greatly 
reassured when they found that, not they, but the man who 
tried to bring about their freedom, was the aim of the ex- 
pedition. The men of Judah volunteered to bring Samson 
down to the seekers, for they were — so tame and fluttering 
had become their hearts under the yoke — fearful that, 
should the giant in strength only be taken by them, at a 
great expense of blood, the Philistines having the means 
at hand to revenge themselves, would wreak their spite on 
the villagers. 

The fugitive had espied, from his eyry the marching of 
the large body on the road ; they had looked to him at so 
great a height like a glittering caterpillar of steel and brass 
undulating along between the green pastures. He was sur- 
prised in some degree, therefore, when, instead of armed 
men climbing rapidly up the rocky side towards him, a col- 
lection of men, mostly graybearded, numerous it is true but 
without other semblances of weapons than their walking- 
staves, slowly ascended by the path which the goats and 



SAMSON. 99 

the more adventurous among the sheep had made. He be- 
lieved it to be a stratagem during the first few moments, 
and little withheld him from rolling down upon them a 
massive rock, which would have without fail lessened their 
numbers by half and cleared the rough pathway as with a 
giant's broom. But he curbed his impatience on noticing 
that the faces were those of his countrymen, and, more, on 
closer scrutiny, that they were some that he kuew to be 
dwellers in the village below. 

However, not to fall into a snare through unpardonable 
recklessness, he called out for them to stand. 

At the words, they looked up, as many of them as could 
see from the winding nature of the narrow pathway, and 
they could not prevent a shudder creeping over them on 
beholding Samson gazing down, a rock as large as a goat- 
house by his shoulder, which seemed to threaten to dis- 
lodge it upon them. They stopped, and the halt continued 
till the three thousand of them were all at a stand-still. 

" Is not that Samson the son of Dan ?" asked the men of 
Judah. 

" It is that lover of his country," was the reply, in which 
was the tincture of reproach ho could not help showing 
towards the sluggards in the cause of liberty. 

" Samson, if you be that, all will be well," said the elder 
of the tribe who spoke for the rest. " The Philistines are 
below in great force to seize you for rebelling against 
them. Why have you done so — why do j t ou do so? Do 
you not know they are rulers over us?" 

" Do I not know they are over us ? Would you obey 
them now and do their labor else? You who are descend- 
ants of the Judah whose father said that his sons should be 
like lions in their prine, whose paws should be on their 
dead foeman's neck, who should have their own brothers 
bow down to them ! Yes, yes, servants of the idol-wor- 



100 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

shipping Philistines, you seem to be those who shall gath- 
er the people !" 

There was a flush at this sarcasm came to the aged 
cheeks of the elders, for they could look back beyond the 
long oppressive rule of their conquerors to their own 
judges, and to their fathers, who had told of Joshua the 
soldier of God. But they were old, and they preferred the 
slavish life at least ensured under tyranny to the risks of 
battling for rights. Had the young men come up the 
mountain side, perhaps they would have been so affected 
by Samson's speech as to have let him lead them down 
upon the enemy. 

" Samson," said the elders, " we wou i stay the useless 
shedding of blood. We fear it may fall upon your own 
head. Will you never cease in your going against author- 
ity? There are laws against you, holy laws." 

" Fathers," said he in return, " there is our great law of 
the Moses who brought us out of Egyptian tyranny, which 
could hardly be worse than the Philistines. Its words are : 
Life for life, eye for eye. As they have done to me, I do 
to them. I loved my wife of a week as Adam loved his, 
the first ! The Philistines gave her death ! She was to me 
more precious than a thousand thousand lives of them, oh, 
worshippers of stocks and stones !" 

They respected his sorrow, and they looked up with 
silence and with surprise, at the strong man, whose eyes 
filled with tears, whose rude voice was rougher with the 
same emotion as shook his well-knit, stalwarth frame. 

" Samson," said they, at last, for the blast of a war-horn 
came faintly upward to them from the Phitistines in wait- 
ing, and aroused them to their office, " Samson, if you love 
your country and its people, will you let this our task be 
done : let us bind you and deliver you to the soldiers ?" 

" I will do it, yes. If you will swear to me, that none of 
you will injure me." 



SAMSON. 101 

u As the Lord liveth, Samson, we will only bind you and 
deliver you to them. We will not think of harming you, 
much less of killing you." 

44 Very well, I trust to those who yet can swear by their 
father's God:' 

As he spoke, he descended and held out his hands to tha 
bearers of the cords. These were new ropes, fresh made 
of the strong fibre of a palm-tree's bark. Enlaced like a 
tiger ensnared by a net, they led the surrendered champion 
down the declivity. The Philistines raised a shout of de- 
light and condescended, so great was their glee, to thank 
the men they usually considered far beneath them. Their 
captains flocked around and taunted the defenceless one, 
and they formed, soldiers and officers on a level from the 
universal joy, one series of ring upon ring around the little 
centre where Sampson, corded more than securely, was the 
target for innumerable insults. His eyes were clear as 
ever, and thev flashed at times as they swept around to 
find the author of some sneer or sarcasm that had struck 
home, but most of the time, they looked up- over the smil- 
ing faces and shaking fists, at the clear sky. A smile 
played unvarying^ on his countenance. 

M Ha, ha ! Redeemer of the Israelites ! hail, strong one 
less than a child ! See him who shall die as died his 
wife ! We'll have a brave flame of him on the very house 
of Timnath that we burnt her in !" 

A shout of fiendish laughter received accessions from 
every throat. But, all at once, it hushed of itself, and 
the open lips that gave it vent, turned pale as the cheeks' 
Samson was still in the circle of the thousands, but he was 
free ! 

Yes, free! for at the putting forth of his strength, the 
new cords had become even weaker than threads of 
rotten wool, and he snapped the score of bands into halves. 



102 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

To stoop, while they were speechless and motionless, and 
treat the lines around his legs in the same manner, was no 
difficult task, and he was free as he could wish. They 
shrank back from him, still without a sound, so potent was 
the awe that ruled them. Near by, within the clear spot and 
serving as a pedestal to several men to overlook the 
heads of those between them and the captain, was the 
skeleton of an ass, fallen dead on the road from exhaustion 
and rolled into the ditch to become bare bones. The metal- 
cased sandals of the soldiers had crushed nearly all the 
same left by the dogs and jackals, so that neither rib, 
thigh or leg-bone were left. But the thick jawbone was 
still there, grinning with the remaining teeth. 

With the parted cords hanging to him yet, Samson strode 
to the ditch, his way being made as much by the terror he 
inspired as by the vigorous brunt of his broad breast. In 
a moment, he turned, the dried ditch behind him, the 
thousands of soldiers before him, and the jawbone in his 
grasp. At the sight of him confronting them, the over- 
powering dread vanished in part, and wholly at the sound 
of their own encouraging words. 

A long spear was run forward at him, but he caught it 
with his left hand and quickened its impetus by the pull 
he gave it. The spearman was then brought to him under 
his left side. His right hand, armed only with the bone, 
descended on the steel cap of the soldier, who fell his 
whole length on the ground and into the ditch. The 
rotten, worm-eaten, and bleached bone had become as hard 
as a rock, and by its edge it had cloven the inch of iron 
and the spearman's skull. Samson dashed into the heart 
of the mass. 

Those who could see, beheld this sight: A heaving sea 
of glittering metal in the forms of iron and brass helmets, 
sword blades, and spear heads, arrows and light darts ; the 



SAMSON. 103 

waves of it, which were each a furious man, converging 
towards the centre, where a man stood on an elevation. 
The elevation was corpses which he had slain, in his 
death-dealing hand was brandished, rose and fell and car- 
ried mortal strokes, no axe or club or mace but the simple 
jaw of the humble animal, no longer white with exposure 
but red with the blood it sprinkled round about as it flour- 
ished in the faces of the on-comers. 

They urged forward one another by the names of their 
gods, he cried on his, and, more, he lifted up his voice so 
powerfully that the young men of Judah, fretting under the 
view of such a spectacle, picked up the weapons of dead 
Philistines and, forming a body increased every moment, 
began to cut their way to where the strong voice rose 
unwaveringly : " The Lord, the Lord shall avenge His 
people !" 

Assailed in flank and seperated, confounded at being 
dared by one man, the Philistines gave way. A thousand, 
and these their foremost, had bitten the blood-besprinkled 
dust. Samson, unwearied still, followed closely, the leader 
now of the men of Judah. But at length, in one of the 
changes of the fight, which left him alone, the weari- 
ness came over him. He was about to sit down, but, re- 
membering himself, he knelt, and laying down the fatal 
bone, poured forth his thanks for the victory which had 
been permitted to be his. He was greatly tormented with 
thirst, so much so that, after fruitlessly seeking on the hot 
plain for a single vestige of moisture, he cried : 

" Praise to the Lord, praise after praise, for having given 
the land such a deliverance by the means of two humble 
instruments. But I thirst, oh, God of a free people, once 
more ; I am too exhausted to search for a pool or reach the 
forest. Am I to fall into the hands of the ungodly ?" 

His eyes, raised appealingly, fell and, in lowering, chanced 



104 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

to alight on the bone cast aside. What was his surprise, 
what his gratitude when he saw, out of a little worm- 
hole in the bone, a drop of pure water force itself, a second 
followed and added itself to the first ; a third and a fourth 
till the globule ran, and next, the stream, growing from 
a tiny thread into a trickling rill, washed off the blood till 
white as lambs* wool again and undefined, the jawbone glit- 
tered clearly in a flow of water. With thanks on his lips* 
Samson knelt and drank. It brought back to him more 
strength than he had spent. 

The pursuers of the few Philistines returned spoil-laden 
and well-armed. They made Samson their leader. Tribe 
after tribe broke out into insurrection, and soon, instead of 
a subjected territory, a liberated land reared its defiant 
border against its late over-riders, the Philistines. Peace 
was on Israel now, and, when Samson was made the ruler 
the words of prophecy were fulfilled : 

" Dan shall judge his people." 

Samson was secretly within the hostile city of Gaza one 
night, when the intelligence of his stay reached the ears of 
his enemies. They were afraid to fall upon him in the dark- 
ness, which would be so much assistance to one man con- 
tending against many, and they determined to wait till day- 
light. To make sure, however, that he should not escape 
them during the night, they secured the gates of the town 
by the very strong bar of oak banded with iron, which 
they used only in time of war. But, in the middle of the 
night, the intended victim awoke and, thinking that he was 
endangering too much to try to leave the place in broad 
daylight, he resolved to take his departure at that late hour. 

He found the walls too well guarded not to risk discov- 
ery, and a wound from a bow, and he went to the 
gates. They were fastened as he expected, but the bar 
was locked on the inside. Samson laughed to himself, foi 



SAMSON. 105 

with two pushes of his shoulders, he bore down before 
him, not the gates alone but the posts with them. He 
doubled the doors on one another, and shouldering all 
walked off with his charge. It was not till he was far 
away that he left them on a hill top. 

Samson, as judge and chief over the Israelites., had had 
no time in the early and laborious portion of his rule, ex- 
cept for his many duties. But his heart, though so strong, 
was yet capable of love. How he had loved, we have seen. 

In the valley of Sorek dwelt a woman of the name of 
Dalilah, who was famous for beauty. She was not equally 
known for goodness, and hence she listened to certain 
lords of the Philistines who visited her by stealth, with 
this proposition. She was to allure Samson, and when she 
should have won his affection, she was to find out how it 
was that he was strong above all other men. These nobles 
promised her, for that invaluable secret, each a thousand 
pieces of silver. She consented greedily. 

For the better furtherance of her aims, she had the chance 
to attract Samson's attention, and gradually, by wicked 
wiles, she attached him rather strongly to her. One time, 
then, believing that she had him sufficiently in her power, 
she asked him that to which she had been tutored. 

" It is no great wonder," said he laughing, " but like most 
wonders, simple to a fault. Instead of ropes or iron, if the 
silly ones could only think to use seven twists of green 
willow never dried, I could no more stir than a stone im- 
age." 

This she tried, when he had fallen asleep and been found 
slumbering by her. The Philistines were waiting outside, 
but Dalilah, suspecting treachery because she was treach- 
orous herself, advised their captains not to come in until 
she should give a signal. To try Samson, she called out in 
his ear : 

5* 



106 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

" Samson, here are the Philistines I" 

Buthe sprang up, and the green wood was broken by him 
like so many dried and brittle stalks. Dalilah, having been 
sure of this, forced a laugh, and told him that she had 
thought that he was only deceiving her. She insisted on 
knowing the truth, which he answered, was : he had only 
to be secured with new cords, which had never been used 
for any purpose whatever. 

Again she found him sleeping and contrived to slip a 
new rope over his hands and feet. Again, too, she had re- 
course to her test, but, at the first call, he rose to his feet 
and cast off the bonds like so many burnt threads. To 
quiet her reproaches he assured her that, if the seven long 
locks of his luxuriant hair should be woven as a warp to 
the web, the charm would be destroyed that made him su- 
perhuman, and he would be even less than his fellow man. 

She believed him, for she could place faith in charms 
and magic sooner than elevate her evil heart to understand 
that more than mortal gifts come only from the Giver of all 
good. When she had the opportunity, which was one af- 
ternoon when Samson had sunk into deep repose by a win- 
dow, aided by her gentle fanning of him, she hastened to 
send off her servant for the Philistines, and to draw her 
loom up to the window. With great care she took up the 
long braids of the Israelite's hair, and — while he slumber- 
ed on unconsciously, his rest deepened by the hum of in- 
sects in the garden and fields of the valley and by the 
whirr of the loom — Dalilah wove into the weft the hair, 
noiselessly plying the shuttle. When he breathed hard or 
moved, she ceased to shoot the cross threads, and waited 
till he slept again. By fits and starts, her faithless works 
progressed until Samson's hair being netted in with the 
tLreads up to as near his head as she dared proceed, she 
concluded her end was achieved. To make herself sure, 



SAMSON". 107 

she fastened the strange cloth down to the heavy frame by 
the roller. 

She was about to call in the soldiers, who had arrived 
softly during her task and secreted themselves in the cor- 
ridor, but she prudently thought of making the trial first. 
So she bent down to the ear of the slumbering man, and 
cried : 

" Samson ! up, up ! the Philistines !" 

At the call, Samson shook himself, like a lion surprised 
asleep by an arrow in his side, and tried to rise. But his 
entangled hairs at first drew him down. At the second at- 
tempt, nevertheless, though it was impossible for him to 
either break the immense quantity of his hair or to pull it 
loose from the cloth which it had been wedded to, he was 
on his feet. The cloth had drawn the pin that retained it 
to the beam out of its hole, and it hung now at his back. 
He accused her then of perfidiousness and went away. 
Not a man in the passage, many as they were, war-proof- 
and well-armed, dared to reveal his presence as he went by 
them. 

The lords accused Dalilah of not fulfilling their anticipa- 
tions of the effect of her charms. She was sufficiently an- 
noyed at her failure without their censures, and, growing 
angry she threatened to give up the part of traitress and 
seller of men. But, on their paying her some money in ad- 
vance and on renewal of old promises and making of new 
ones, she agreed to a final essay. 

She had no little pains to revive Samson's affection 
again, but she did succeed. As soon as she presumed to 
imperil her standing with him, she began as before : 

" Samson, here's sixty times a day you declare you love 
me. And fifty times more you aver I do not love you. 
Why ? Merely because I sought to test your affection. Your 
heart is not mine ! Have I a secret from you ? Have I ever 



108 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

deceived you once, as badly as you thrice have trifled with 
me? Oh, Samson, tell me truly, what makes you, loved as 
you are above all other men by me, stronger than any that 
are or have been." 

" I am strong in faith in my Lord," said he solemnly. 

"No, no, I do not mean that," said she quickly, for al- 
though she pretended not to place credence in a God, yet, 
as few are impenetrably hardened, the simple mention of 
the holy name wounded her. " No, no, in what rests your 
power ? As you love me, tell me !" 

She grew as fervent in her entreaties as he grew resolved 
in his determination, but, he had his moment of weakness. 
He found the woman nearer to him than the Omnipresent, 
tie trusted in her rather than in Him who knows no deceit. 

Strong as he was above his fellows, high as he was above 
them as a ruler, he fell ; and as he was high and strong so 
he became weak and low beneath calculation. 

" He said : " Would any make me powerless as a babe ? 
Let me be shaven. For I have been a child unto God from 
infancy, a Nazarite. While His, we are never allowed to 
injure ourselves, and my hair is virgin of steel." 

He dared not look up at the heaven which he had for- 
gotten, or around on the beauties of nature, which pointed 
every one, from eye-pleasing flower to taste delighting 
fruit, to the Infinite Goodness, and he bowed his head. 
Tenderly, but falsely, soothingly but designedly, Dalilah 
guided his head to her lap. She talked in a low, lulling 
voice, and he slept. Quickly, the traitress seized the near- 
est object and flung it against the wall as the signal. The 
soldiers rushed in, but did so noiselessly. She whispered 
the instructions. Presently one of them with a sharp dag- 
ger, cut off the seven thick braids of the si umber er. 

Then Dalilah sprang up, and clapped her hands, saying 
mockingly : 



SAMSON". 109 

" Samson, Samson ! here are the Philistines, indeed !" 
The Israelite awoke. Around him was the force of armed 
men filling the room, Dalilah smiling in triumph, and all the 
faces glad. Samson raised his once terrible arms, but ten 
pair of hands were on them, and, strive as he would, pray 
as he would, he sighed to find he was but as other men. 
They bound him, and this time he was totally incapable of 
even straining the ligaments which would have easily 
broken at his first effort of other times. His captors had 
no sooner dragged him within their own territory, when 
uneasy at their triumph being so complete and afraid yet 
that they might be foiled by some unexpected exhibition 
of his perhaps only slumbering strength, they put out Sam- 
son^ eyes. As soon as they had led him into Gaza, where 
the multitude flocked around to gaze at the gate-bearer 
powerless now, and to impede the joyful march, they fet- 
tered him with brass manacles and leg-bands, weightier and 
in greater number than ever a prisoner had been shackled 
with before. 

Crushed down by his ponderous shackles, crushed down 
too, by the immensity of his guilt, for the Israelites had 
now lost their wise ruler of twenty years by his folly, 
Samson could only repent. As he did so heartily, little by 
little, his power returned to him, proportionably to the 
growth of his hair. By entreaties he procured the doves, 
the lamb, the cake, bread and oil for the Nazarite offering 
of penitence and, praying that they would be received from 
his dark cell and his chained hands no less gratefully than 
the free priest in the holy temple, he officiated over his 
own sacrifices. But the poor comfort of worshipping in 
his dungeon was soon denied him, for that his might was 
being restored again, his jailors discovered. He was made, 
instead of the double yoke of oxen previously employed, to 
move the great mill-stone and grind in the prison house. 



110 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

His hair still grew and by degrees he kept regaining his 
force. 

At the end of the year, there was a grand assemblage of 
high and low in the vast arena of the temple, which was 
open to the air above, for, so wide was its area, no beams 
could be found or none joined to be long enough to stretch 
across and hold up a roof. In the centre were the altars, 
on which whole animals were offered up to Dagon their 
chief god. It was a thanksgiving to him for the blessings 
they credited him with conferring during the past months. 
In their enumeration of the causes for rejoicing they did 
not forget the capture of Samson. 

Loud and earnest were the shouts of the people to the 
image : 

"Glory to yon, matchless Dagon! you have delivered 
into our hands our enenry, the destroyer at whose door lie 
so many deaths of our mighty ones V 

In their mirth of heart, one lord proposed that Samson 
should be brought out and made to display his harmless 
strength for the amusement of all. The populace were 
overjoyed at the proposition and cheered its maker. 

In the time it took to send to the jail, to have Samson 
detached from the rings in the wall, and, loaded with 
chains which sat lightly upon him now, be conducted there, 
it was done. The muscular figure, a little bowed by the 
fault which he had committed but grieviously expiated, 
was before the circle of galleries, packed with the Philis- 
tines, his head erect and his poor, sightless sockets seem- 
ing to search for the heaven which they had not eyes to 
see. It was something, though, for him to feel the good 
Lord's sunlight come down the opening and seemingly 
warm smile upon him, glad to see him since so long, for he 
had been in darkness in his dungeon and in duskiness in 
the miilroom, of which the air was dim with the dtist of the 



SAMSON. Ill 

grinding. At his appearance, a thundering clamor broke 
out on the ground floors and the others. 

" Samson, Samson ! Welcome, oh, judge of Israel I wel- 
come, great rebel I welcome, believer in a helpless God, oh, 
helpless man ! Ha, ha ! behold the wise man of Israel en- 
snared by a woman ! behold the mighty man whom a score 
of archers mastered ! Samson, bow to our invincible God I" 

They were frantic, and the laughs and cries seemed as if 
they would know no stop. At length, however, silence 
was restored. They found entertainment in making Sam- 
son exhibit his power. They made him lift a whole pile of 
iron in bars, take a large man in each hand, though the 
men were accoutered for war and weighed no little breast 
and back plated ; they made him do this and do that, till 
they tired of looking and gave him the rest which he did 
not need. Samson had been tempted to fling the weights 
he had sported with, into the thickest of the noisy throng, 
but he felt how little such a vengeance would be. 
Another idea seized him. He turned to the little boy who 
guided his steps, and begged him to take him to the main 
columns, against which he would like to lean and rest. It 
was done. 

The Hebrew captive stood under the principal part of 
the building. The dignitaries of the land were clustering 
in the galleries above him. The main altars smoked in 
front. The common people were high above on the top- 
most tier, closely pressed. The priests were concluding 
the sacrifices before the gigantic image of the idol. 
• Samson groped with his hands, till he felt on each side 
of him, the huge rounded stone columns which were the 
capital pillars. While the multitude exhaled their breath 
in one deafening cry of acclamation to their God, Samson 
silently breathed his prayer. 

" Oh, Lord God who once deigned to favor me, 1 pray 



112 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

with all my heart and soul that thou wilt strengthen me 
this once, so that they may be punished, not for the wrongs 
and torments they have placed on me, but for their insults 
to thy Majesty !" 

They were spending their voices yet in exclaiming : 
" Praise to Dagon, god of gods ! praise to the only being 
who is worthy of all praise !" when, loudly as they voci" 
ferated, they heard a voice beneath them say : 

" Let me die with these profane L" 

Samson had embraced with either arm a pillar and irre- 
sistibly had hugged them towards his breast. 

High above all other sounds, a sinister crackling pro- 
claimed itself, an awful herald to an overwhelming crash. 
The columns were wrenched from their bases, the galle- 
ries bent there like a bow, and the planks and largest tim- 
bers began to warp. A scream arose from a thousand lips 
and some leaped over the topmost gallery to die upon the 
ground. The wood splintered and gave way in all directions, 
and a violent noise rose from the ground shaking with the 
fall. The floors, loaded as they were, had borne down their 
living freight inwards. The idol was split and dethroned 
and crushed its own priests by twos and threes in its de- 
scent. The altars had their hot coals scattered by flying 
beams, and the flames they kindled among the rubbish ad- 
ded a fresh terror to the scene of destruction. The im- 
mensity of the disaster seemed to silence the groans and 
shrieks for a moment. The dying, then, caught with their 
closing ears, this mournful chant of their late captive's 
triumph : 

"Oh, God of my fathers, to thee the glory! Thanks to 
the God of Father Moses who sang : * He will avenge the 
blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to His 
adversaries ; He alone can deliver. Where are the gods 
they trusted, where is their rock!' " 



SAMSON". 113 

It was Samson entombed by the largest heap of ruins, 
dying by the slow but sure pressure of the mass, but pre- 
serving his spirits to the last. The god of the Philistines 
nad been cast down like their noblest and highest, and the 
few who escaped from the human hecatomb looked with fas- 
cinated though frightened eyes on the mounds of bristling 
wood, under which were buried three thousand dead, dying 
and wounded. 

The family of Samson came and took him from the monu- 
ment of devastation which he had caused. In the burying- 
place of his father, they placed the corpse of him who had 
liberated his country ami judged it valiantly as wisely for 
twenty years, and who had slain more in the hour of his 
death than in all his life, stained by but few faults and 
they fully atoned for. 



Ill THE BOYS OF THY: BIBLE. 



SAMUEL. 



In the village of Ramathaim-Zophim, on Mount Ephraim. 
there lived a man of certain wealth, who was named EJkan- 
ah. It was not wrong in those days for a man to have 
more than one wife, and this Elkanah had two, Hannah and 
Penirmah. The latter had children, but she was not con- 
tent and thankful at that, but she used to boast and laugh 
and taunt Hannah, who, unable to bear so much tormenting, 
often fell to crying and mourning. Every year, Elkanah 
was wont to leave Ramathaim, and, with his family, travel 
to Shiloh, where the tabernacle of the Lord had at length 
rested under Joshua, and where there were feasts, with 
dancing and music in the worship yearly. The father took 
the different animals and goods he had brought along over 
the sandy roads, the basaltic rocky lands, and over the 
piney mountains on the backs of asses and one and two- 
humped camels, and divided them among his wife Penin- 
nah and her children so that they could make their offer- 
ings at the holy place. He loved Hannah very much and 
to her he gave much more than to the others, but still she 



SAMUEL. 115 

was so teased and provoked by the other wife, that her 
throat was full of sobs and she could not eat a bit of what- 
ever was set before her, however tempting, roast kid or 
baked, fine flour cakes or honey. 

" Why are you weeping, Hannah ?" her husband asked. 

But she kept her head bowed down in her hands on her 
lap, and the tears were trickling through between her fin- 
gers. 

" And you won't eat ? Try, for you will make yourself 
ill. Don't be so sad all the time. Am I not, I the husband 
who loves you so, dearer to you than a dozen sons ?" 

Not liking to pain her husband any longer with her sor- 
rowing, which she could not overcome, less than ever 
when she heard every moment the other wife's children 
playing around her and being kissed and kissing, Hannah 
left the table while they were finishing the meal of the 
evening, and went out in the streets, where she wandered 
till she came to the Temple of the Lord. There she sat 
herself down and her bitterness of spirit continuing, she 
felt that, as her grief (for His wise purposes) came from 
heaven alone, so the joy and relief she desired could also 
only be given by the Being so much more powerful than 
all the mightiest together of earth. So, while weeping bit- 
terly, she said to herself that, if God would be so good to 
lier as to remember she would do all she could in re- 
turn, and, if she should have a darling little son given her, 
as soon as he could be parted from her, she would make 
him a servant of the gracious Giver all the days of his life. 

Now, at the same time, Eli, who was the priest, was 
seated on a bench by the doorpost of the Temple, resting 
in the shadow and watching the going down of the bright 
sun on the plains. There were few passers-by at that 
hour, and he was not disturbed in his thoughts until a sob 
Dr two came to his ears. It was Hannah, weeping amid 



116 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

her prayer. She was making her vow from her heart, 
though, and her words were not to be heard if her lips did 
move. The priest saw the motion of her lips and the rock- 
ing of her body and the movement of her arms, and he 
thought that she was some wretched creature who was 
drunk. He was shocked and ashamed that one who had 
so forgotten herself should have dared to come that near 
to the place sacred to worship, and, leaving his seat, he 
went over to her to chide her. 

" Why, woman," said he sternly, " why have you taken 
to wine or strong drink, against all laws ? Put away the 
wine from me." 

She took her hands away from her reddened and tearful 
eyes, and held them out open to him. 

" You may see, my lord," said she, " that I have nothing 
wrong on me. I am only a woman who has drunken deep 
of misery's cup. I have been pouring out my soul to the 
good Lord, good though I am in sadness by His will — good, 
for could He not have done many, many things to have ad- 
ded to my grief ; death to my dear husband, great harm to 
myself. I was praying, sir, praying, that was all. I am not 
a naughty woman, or I would fear to pray before the 
Temple." 

Eli saw she was speaking the truth for she met his eyes 
with the modest look, if bold in truthfulness, of hers tear- 
streaming, and said : " Go, with a heart in peace. May the 
God of Israel grant what thou asked of Him." 

Thanking him, she turned away, much less saddened, and 
went home, where she found she could eat. Her husband 
was pleased that her face should wear a smile again. The 
next day, they all went back to their home by Mount Eph- 
raim. A whole year past, when Hannah found that He to 
whom she had prayed had not forgotten her, for she was 
blessed with a little boy, to whom she gave the name of 



SAMUEL. 117 

Samuel, meaning. Asked of the Lord. Her husband and the 
rest of his family were about to start for the regular jour- 
ney to Shiloh once more, and he asked her if she would 
not come to thank heaven for having listened to her and 
answered her. But she said no ; she would wait till the 
little one was become strong enough to be taken on such a 
journey and her husband told her to do as she thought 
best, and, with a kiss on her cheek and on the babv's fore- 
head, he mounted his camel and gave his men orders to 
begin the march of the caravan. 

At last, little Samuel was large enough to bear the hard- 
ships of the road, and then, with his father and his mother, 
he was taken to Shiloh. They drove along with them three 
bullocks, and carried some flour and a leathern bottle of 
wine. When they arrived in the city, they killed one of 
the cattle and brought the child to Eli in the Temple. 

" Do you remember me, my lord," Hannah asked the 
priest. " Bat it is so long ago. I am the poor woman 
whose grief you thought to be drunkenness. This is the 
child I prayed for ; see him smile and clap his little hands 
at the glory of the tabernacle within — and he reaches out 
for your breast-plate so bright ! Well, the good as great 
Lord has not forgotten me — I hasten to do my promise. 
Here, take the child I give to His holy house. And, see, if 
heaven has been so kind to me, and I so far from one of the 
best, who says he is too wicked to have hope. And shall 
not the good, those better than I, call trustingly on the Al- 
mighty ?" 

Eli took the child, then, and his mother went away with 
his father to their home. Little Samuel grew up, hearing 
holy words and seeing holy things from almost everybody 
that entered the Temple. The two sons of Eli, named 
Hophni and Phineas, alone were bad, and they were very 
much so. Not content with spending their time and more 



118 



THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 



and more deeply blackening the good name their father 
had given them, by sharing evil sports with the wicked 
young men and girls of the city, they felt no awe even 
when in the sacred building, and out of bravado, they used 
to make their servant take meat which the people brought 
to be sacrificed for them to eat themselves. If any of the 
people murmured against the wrong-doing, the servant 
would threaten to take it by force, and in this way, the 
sons of the priest frightened the faithful worshippers. But 
still, these, laying the blame to the Worshipped One instead 
of those who filled the place of His ministers so unwor- 
thily, grumbled and disliked to take cattle or bread or cake 
or fruit or any offering to the Temple so long as they were 
robbed of it. 

Meanwhile, as Samuel grew up, his mother came every 
year, with his father, to see him, and she brought every 
time clothes she made herself for him to wear. Eli was 
pleased with the boy's good conduct, for he was always 
respectful to the old man and, as soon as he could run 
about, he was only too happy to go to the city for his 
needs or to save him any trouble. And Eli blessed Han- 
nah and her husband and hoped they would be made 
happy with other children to replace that one they had 
given to the service of God. And heaven did bless them 
and Samuel had three brothers and two sisters to come to 
the city with his parents and see him in the hall of the 
congregation. 

By this time Samuel was able to keep in the duties of 
the priesthood, and, wearing his linen ephod, he ministered 
before the altar. It was he who was busy morn and noon 
till dark, keeping bright the golden and silver ornaments 
of the tabernacle ; the mercy-seat, the ark, the table and 
dishes, the candle-sticks and lamps, as well as dust with 
softest fleece the polished sweet-scented wood ; and ho 



SAMUEL. 1 1 9 

saw that the lamps were filled and ready every evening and 
dark days when the storm-clouds swept over the plains 
around the city ; and he folded up and put away with care 
the garments of the priests, with the chains and breast- 
plates and frontlets, which he took care should never be 
tarnished or dented ; and he held the water and the silver 
scraper and the little broom to clean the brass top of the 
perfumed wooden altar ; and the oil to anoint it afterward 
so that it should be holy for the next sacrifice ; and he 
often had the key and the charge of the inner room where 
were kept the pure oils and fine spices. And Samuel — 
though Eli's wicked sons looked at the rich work of 
precious metals and costly stone with the eyes of calcu- 
lators as to their worth among men — Samuel never went 
among the sacred vessels or walked by the altar and re- 
garded them otherwise than in reverence. He always felt 
that if the curiously carved and polished gold was bright 
yet the glory of Him they were offered to, was far, far 
more dazzling ; that the jewels were nothing to the light- 
nings of heaven for brilliancy ; that the valuable curtains 
of finest hair of goats, the silk and fine stuffs were trifles 
to the priceless gifts of God, health, happiness, peaceful 
heart. And every moment he thought of the kind Pow- 
er who had given him little brothers to gladden his 
mother, parted from him, and little sisters to make her still 
more joyful, and whenever he saw by a doorway or by a 
window of the Temple, or when he was out of doors with 
the priest (called to settle some dispute of farmers about 
their fields), some boy of his own age taking the name of 
his Maker in vain, stoning for cruel sports a pigeon, cry- 
ing after the lame, blind, or deformed, speaking shamefully 
to his parents, (too kind to give him over to punishment, 
badly as he acted), stealing grapes and other fruit and li- 
quors and beginning to poison himself so early, or doing 



120 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

any of the wicked deeds that are still to our day, Samuel 
would look up to the sky and sorrow, and he would wish 
he did not keep beside the priest so that he could run to 
the boy and speak to him to make him better. 

Eli was growing old, for he was more than ninety, as 
Samuel grew up. People had been sorry to inform him 
how his sons were shamefully conducting themselves, but 
at last he heard of it, and he told them he knew now what 
they had been doing and were doing and he warned them, 
for, priest's sons as they were, their straying from the good 
path was a sin against heaven, and not merely against 
man. But Phineas and his brother laughed to themselves 
would not mind their old father, and w 7 ent off into the city 
to be worse than ever, making their associates laugh with 
their jokes on the aged man. 

Samuel comforted the priest and stayed in doors with 
him, and he was loved by all. Many were the farmers* 
wives and the farmers themselves, w T ho made little presents 
to him of fruit and cakes, and those who lived in the 
country near his parents, in returning went out of their 
wa} 7 to Elkanah's house to speak of their boy. A very 
good man one day came to tell Eli (for there was no Bible 
in those times and when the King of Heaven wished to tell 
his people anything, He chose good men to be His messen- 
gers) that God was displeased at his sons acting as they 
did. From father to son the priesthood went down, but 
the worship would be disgraced if it should fall at Eli's 
death unto such stained hands as his children's. The man 
told the priest further that both Phineas and Hophni would 
meet death the same day and that the last of Eli's race 
would be glad to beg bread of the faithful man whom 
heaven would select to take the priest's place. 

Darkness came on one evening. All in the city slept, except 
the priest's sons and some noisy friends of theirs who were 



SAMUEL. 121 

riotously feasting in a stranger's tent near Shiloh, and the 
dew was falling on the parched sand, the naked rock and the 
fruitful soil that was tilled. Eli had lain down to sleep in 
his room of the Temple, and Samuel, saying his little prayer 
• in the dusk, for the lamps were going out in the place, 
went also to bed, not in the least afraid there, after having 
entrusted himself to heaven, when a voice called out the 
boy's name. 

" Here I am !' said he, springing up and running to Eli's 
room, for the old man could not see very well and had often 
to call for his help in the night. 

But the priest was in slumber, and when he woke up, 
said, " No, he had not called. It must be some dream of 
youth. Go to bed again, Samuel." 

The boy had hardly lain down once more than he was 
sure this time he was called, and he hurried to the priest 
only to be told, though, that ho was mistaken again. And 
so a third time. But Eli had heard the voice and he knew 
whose it must be, and he told Samual, if he again was 
named, to answer : " Speak, Lord, for thy servant 
heareth." 

As he was bade, he did, for the voice came still again, 
and as soon as he had answered : " Speak, Lord, for thy 
servant heareth," the voice continued, as he listened, kneel- 
ing on his bed : " The Lord who speaketh will do towards 
Eli and his what He has said. He did not keep his sons 
from evil — his house shall be punished, do what they 
may." 

As soon as it was dawn, Samuel hastened to throw open 
the doors of the Temple and kept away from the priest, to 
whom he was afraid and disliked to tell what he had heard. 
But Eli called him to him, and begged him to tell what had 
passed and, when he heard it all, for Samuel hid no tiling at 
all of it from him (for he was all truth), Eli bowed his 
6 



122 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

Lead and said : " It was the Lord who said this : his will 
be done." 

From one end of the country settled by the Israelites to 
the other, every one believed in Samuel having been made 
a prophet of the Lord, who appeared to him more than 
once by His Word. 

In a battle with the Philistines, the Israelites were de- 
feated and to recover their losses, they could only think of 
taking the ark of the covenant from Shiloh and bearing it 
among the soldiers. But, though the enemy were at first 
afraid of the God who had worked such wonders to the Is- 
raelites during their wanderings in the wilderness after 
their flight from King Pharaoh, they charged the Israelites 
once more and not only put them to flight, but took the ark 
itself and killed the two sons of Eli. A man hastened to 
tell the priest all, and hardly had he imparted the bad news 
than Eli fell from his seat and broke his neck. 

Meanwhile the victors had taken away their trophy and 
put it in the house of worship to their god Dagon, in Ash- 
dod. In the morning they found that this statue had fallen 
forward before the ark. The next morning, for they re- 
placed their idol, they found nothing but a stump left of it, 
for it was again overthrown and the head and hands cut off, 
so the priests and people were afraid to go into the hall. The 
Philistines were made sick, so that they were fain at length 
to cry out for the removal of the ark. It had been in 
idolators' hands seven months, during which they had had 
the plague horribly. The priests ordered that presents of 
gold should be put in the ark and that it should be taken 
back to the enemy. This was done, and the ark stayed 
twenty years at Kirjath-jearim, while the Israelites thought 
it was lost to them forever, and they took strange gods in 
the place of the true one. Samuel warned them and re- 
proved them, and, on their destroying their idols, he prayed 



SAMUEL. 123 

that Ills countrymen would be spared from their late con- 
querors who were coming anew in full battle array, with 
many spears and arrows. The prayer was answered, for 
a great storm arose and overwhelmed the Philistines at the 
time of their enemy's charge, and they were pursued a 
great way. All the advantages they had won, were regain- 
ed by the Israelites, who held Samuel in higher and higher 
esteem. 

Samuel was getting old now, and he wished to have 
his sons, Joel and Abiah, judge the land in his place. They 
were not at all like him, for they took bribes and gave false 
sentences and did great harm to justice and people, so 
much so that Samuel was complained to, and the people de- 
sired to choose a king for Israel, like other nations had. 
It was in vain that he used all his wisdom to show them 
how a monarch would enslave them, and take everything 
good he wanted from whoever he pleased, and to point out 
to them the happiness they enjoyed as they were gover- 
ened. They would have a king. And word came from 
Heaven to Samuel that he should let them have their own 
way, and be given a man like themselves to be over them, 
instead of the King who had been theirs so far. So the 
priest chose Saul, a young man of the tribe of Benjamin, 
the least of all the family of Israel, and he was made king. 

For some time King Saul did well, but, after many bat- 
tles, when sent to stay the Amalekites, he let his soldiers 
plunder, and Samuel reproved him for it, and told him that 
he would soon be no longer the sovereign. With that he 
left him, and they never met again. Samuel was told in a 
vision that among the sons of Jesse, a Bethlehemite, he 
would find the next king and, old as he was, he went there 
and chose Jesse's younger son, David, as the future sover- 
eign. But, while David was scarcely of man's age, and 
Saul was still the Ruler, Samuel gave up to the God he had 



124 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

bo well served, from the days when he had been a little 
child before the altar to these of his old age, his pure and 
faithful spirit. With the many heavy lamentations he de- 
served, he was buried at his house at Hainan. 



DAVID. 125 



DAVID. 



Saul, who was king over Israel, having gone against all 
rules of good and of God, brought down upon him the 
heavenly anger, and Samuel the prophet was commanded 
by the King of Kings to make the new sovereign of him 
whom the Lord should choose. 

David, the youngest of the eight children of Jesse, who 
dwelt at Bethlehem, was keeping the sheep as was his 
daily duty, and playing to solace his loneliness on the rude 
harp of those days, on whose strings he was skillful, from 
so much practice, when he was called to his father. He 
had been thought unworthy from his youth, to be presented 
to the venerable Samuel, who had come and asked to see 
Jesse's family, and had been therefore left in the pasture. 

He stood before the prophet. The latter erect but with 
the weight of many years of pious labor upon him, his 
snowy beard long, his hands and face wrinkled, and a slight 
trembling on his whole frame ; the other, round-faced and 
ruddy with health and the chasing the sheep in the open 
air. 

In the midst of the boys, eight brothers, and their father, 
Samuel took the transparent horn in which was the oil, 
(with some of which he had anointed Saul,) and put a few 
drops on the boy's head and proclaimed him the Lord's 
anointed. 



126 



THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 



It was after this that Saul was dispirited, and to such a 
degree that his own servants noticed it, and proposed that 
he should let himself be cheered up by singing and other 
music. They told him that the 3'oungest son of Jesse was 
a very fine player on the harp, besides being a handsome 
youth highly fit for a royal chamber. The king hastened 
to send off messengers to Bethlehem. And not only did 
Jesse let his son go, but he sent along with him an ass car- 
rying fine bread, and a leathern bottle of wine, and a fine 
kid, as presents to the sovereign. Saul was greatly charmed 
by the boy's appearance, and was still more delighted with 
him when his playing on his harp acted like magic to drive 
away the fits of despondency which naturally seized the 
monarch who had forgotten the God who had lifted him 
from the common herd and placed him on the throne. He 
made him one of his armor-bearers, for the king having the 
most precious life, necessarily wore the heaviest and 
strongest mail and, not to fatigue him, the helmet, shield, 
breast and back-plate would be carried by servants until 
the very moment when they were actually needed. 

But Saul was gathering most of the available men of his 
realm to resent the invasion of the Philistines, whose camps 
were already on Judean soil, and among his forces were 
the three eldest sons of Jesse. David thought so many 
enough from his father's family, and he renounced his high 
position to return to his father. He was at home, while the 
others were soldiers confronting the enemy at Elah. Jesse 
ordered the boy, for his sons had been in the field some 
forty days and the system of provisioning an army was 
very ill-cared for in those ancient times, to pack up some 
parched corn, with a dozen loaves, and carry them to the 
soldiers his brothers, and bring back their receipt for them, 
and a report as to how they fared, as well as to give ten 



DAVID. 127 

cheeses he took also to their captain to make him atten- 
tive to them in the camp life. 

The boy started the first thing in the morning with his 
burden and went as far as the valley where the troops 
were already in motion to fall upon one another, nothing 
scarcely but hand-to-hand fighting being the mode. David 
hurried to pass among the companies in motion and join 
his brothers. He was talking with them, exchanging news 
of home for the war news, when there was a great tremb- 
ling among the Israelites and they all but broke and ran, al- 
though the Philistines were yet at a distance, and but one 
man came out in advance of their gleaming line of spears 
and swords. 

But this was a man, indeed. More than nine feet high, 
broad shouldered and strong in proportion, he might well 
cause terror. He glittered from head to foot in heavy 
brazen plates, and his shield was as much as one man 
could lift and carry before him. He had a long and weighty 
spear in his huge grasp, tipped with iron, and he brandish- 
ed it to terrify the shrinking Israelites. Every day for a 
couple of weeks this soldier had presented himself thus 
and loudly called himself the champion of his countrymen 
and offered to fight any single man of the enemy, the victor 
to decide the fate of all the thousands. 

There he stood before them now, crying out : 

"I am Goliath of Gath, and defy your whole army. 
Choose your man and send him out against me." 

" Who is this man who dares defy the followers of the 
ever-living God ?" asked David of those around him. 

" You hear him boast of his name. He has come out in 
this way day after day, but no one of us can venture 
against the giant. Would I could, for the king will enrich 
whoever vanquishes him and free him of taxes for all time 
forth." 



128 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

" And do you let him, this Philistine who worships sticks 
and stones, daily thus insult you ?" cried David, his eyes 
flashing with indignation. 

11 Do you know, young sheep," said Eliab, David's eldest 
brother, who was angry at the boy's words, " do you know 
there are brave captains and brave men here around you. 
Were the killing of this huge man of Gath a matter easy to 
be done by a common man, would he shake his spear big 
as a weaver's beam now in our faces ? Go back to your 
handful of sheep in the wilderness, and do not presume to 
say your presumptuous say before men. I know how 
proud you are since Samuel the old prophet sprinkled you 
with the oil, but let us have none of that pride here which 
ill became you at home. Return, for you and your like 
are not fit even to look on a battle. You are not wanted 
here." 

" What have I done*?'' answered David mildly. " When 
so many of you show alarm for one man, may I not, I who 
am afraid never of evil and evil men, may I not be 
wanted ?" 

He turned away from his brother and tried to encourage 
the other soldiers, and his bold talk ran round to every ear 
till it came even to King Saul's, who sent for him. 

" My king, may I take another's place and go out to meet 
this loud-voiced, defiant Goliath ?" asked David calmly. 

" You ? You, my child, are in no wise able to fight that 
Philistine, you are only a boy and have been brought up in 
peace. He has been a soldier from his youth up and is fa- 
mous as a strong and active man, skilled and hardy." 

" My lord the king," said David firm in his purpose, " I 
was tending my father's sheep one day, when I heard a 
dreadful growl in the woods, and, with shaggy coat all 
bristling and long teeth gnashing with famine, a huge bear 
sprang over the rivulet and in three leaps over the pasture 



DAVID. 129 

grass, caught hold of one of the sheep from the midst of 
the frightened flock. I sprang upon him with my staff and 
beat him so that, howling and relinquishing the poor dead 
sheep, he was glad to fly back, unsatisfied and with barely 
the taste of the blood of his prey on his jaws, into the 
forest. And again, I was with my flock, when my dogs 
began to growl and spring up and bark. A lion with long 
mane standing on end, with grinding fangs and lolling 
tongue, with every claw and sinew and muscle set in action, 
launched himself into the fold. With a stroke of his paws 
he broke the back of one of my brave dogs and the other, 
torn with a second blow, would not approach him a second 
time. I was not afraid, then, but I rushed upon him, 
though he had a lamb in his frightful jaws, and struck him 
about the head till my staff was broken and he kad 
dropped the prey. He turned on me in fury, and I, with 
my knife, stood with firm foot for him, I caught him by the 
very beard with this, my left hand, and with my right I 
stabbed and stabbed till his hot breath failing as I chanced 
to penetrate his eyes he fell dead at my feet. 

The king looked on the animated countenance of the 
youth, so truthful, too, and was more confident. 

" The Giver of my life," said David hopefully, " who pre- 
served it from the lion and the bear, may think it well 
still to shield it, when I risk it against this idolater and de- 
fiant Philistine. He shall fall in the struggle as fell the 
wild beasts." 

" Go," said Saul, " the Lord be with you. But let us take 
all our precautions, too. For he is foolish who sets all the 
burden on Him he prays to and does nothing himself." 

His own armor Saul ordered to be put on David and he 
himself put on the helmet. David took up the king's 
sword and buckled it on, but, so weighty was the metal on 
him, that he could hardly stir or lift his hand up to his head. 



130 



He had to take off the protection, saying be was unaccus- 
tomed to be hampered in any way and that such defences 
would only be his ruin. He went out of the royal tent, 
and going to the nearest brook, he picked up carefully half 
a dozen choice pebbles which he put in the bag slung by 
its strap of goat's leather over his shoulder. His sling 
was in one hand, and his walking pole in the other. In 
this simple array, to the surprise of some, to the scoffs and 
pity of others of his countrymen, he left the friendly line 
and strode out with his youthful, elastic step towards the 
colossus in advance of the foe. 

The latter, with his shield-bearer, amid the laughter of 
his comrades, stepped forward at the same time. But 
when the huge soldier came near enough to make out what 
manner of an antagonist was coming against him, he, too, 
burst into a fierce laugh, full of scorn. 

" Am I a dog that a baby shakes a stick at me," said he 
in indignation. " Are the men of Israel only fit to have a 
child be in their stead ?" 

He cursed the boy in the name of his gods, and, with 
many a horrid oath, shouted in his strong voice : 

" Come to me, and I'll give your tender flesh to the 
crows and the hyenas ! Come on I" 

But David was no wise daunted. 

" You come to me," said he, " with sword, spear and 
shield, and great strength, but I am but a weak youth who 
am strong alone in the great favor of the almighty God, 
who is my weapon and defence. To prove there is a great 
Commander of our hosts, you will die this day by my hand, 
and on you, champion of the unbelieving Philistines, will 
the birds and beasts make their meals. The greater you, 
the greater your fall, and both armies shall see that the 
Lord needs no weapon of man, but by His invisible hand 
sends death to whomsoever He wills." 



DAVID. 131 

The giant had scarcely listened to so long a speech in 
patience, and hardly were the last words spoken than he 
strode forward in all his power. But David, while putting 
his Land in his pouch, walked swiftly towards him, to the 
astonishment of both hosts, who watched in silence, except 
sighs of pity from the Israelites and smothered laughs of 
anticipated triumph to their champion from the Philistines. 

David had drawn one of the stones from his bag and 
fitted it in his sling. It whistled in the air, and, passing 
over the space between, in an instant flew over the Philis- 
tine shield-bearer's head and lodged itself in the forehead 
of Goliath crashing through the bones. The giant groaned, 
his spear fell from his hand, and, turning half, he fell for- 
ward on his face on the grass, never to move again. 
The ground was still shaking with his heavy fall, as 
the victor ran to the spot. The shield-bearer, in alarm, 
flung aside the buckler, and, casting one hasty glance at 
his bleeding master, took to flight to find refuge among his 
friends. 

The shepherd-boy did not pursue him, but stopped by 
the fallen champion. He stooped and tore from its long scab- 
bard the large sword, and, swinging it round, brought its 
edge down with all his force on Goliath's neck, and the 
shaggy head rolled off bleeding at the cut as well as at the 
other wound. 

At the sight of the blood gushing from the trunk like a 
stream from a rock, the Philistines w T ere dismayed and fled, 
their speed quickened by the cheer of victory and exulta- 
tion that the Israelites set up, as, weapon in hand, they 
rushed after the fugitives. The routed were hunted out of 
the territory they had invaded, and all their camp equip- 
age and spoil fell into the conquerors' hands. Foremost 
among the Israelites in the pursuit, was Jonathan, the 
king's son, and he greatly distinguished himself by his 



132 



THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 



vigorous wielding of his sword. When he returned he met 
David who was carrying the head of Goliath. He conversed 
with him and as the prince was fond of valiant men, and as 
he had already been prepossessed with the shepherd-boy., 
from having heard him tell the story of the lion and the 
bear, he conceived a great liking for the youth. And he 
went with him before his father the king. 

Saul, for this great act, would not let David go home 
again and he appointed him to a captainship in the sight 
of all the army and the royal household. 

As the victors came back, they were met by their wives 
and families, who sang and danced for joy, playing on 
pipes, harps and tamborines, and one of their chants ran : 
44 Hail to Saul who has slain thousands of our insulters, and 
hail to David who has slain his tens of thousands I" This 
annoyed and even angered the monarch for he saw there 
v/as more praise given to the shepherd-boy than to him, 
and, the first flush of his gratitude to David being over, he 
began to hate him. 

On the other hand, Prince Jonathan's liking turned into 
love for the Philistine's slayer, and he could not do too 
much to evince his affection. He gave David a full suit 
of his own garments, with his sword, belt, and bow. 

With his envy and jealousy, the fits of madness to which 
Saul was subject, returned, and in one of them, on the very 
next day, he twice hurled his javelin at David, whose nim- 
bleness only enabled him to escape being pinned to the 
wall, as the King intended. Thus failing in his intent, Saul in 
turn grew afraid of the youth, and, for fear he might kill 
him and try to become ruler in his stead, he dared not let 
him be any longer near his person, and — afraid, too, to de- 
grade or punish the people's favourite — he ordered David 
to be commander of the troops which served over the 
borders. 



DAVID. 133 

David was wise with the beginning of wisdom, that is : 
the knowledge of God's endless goodness and greatness. 
And, hence, he did his duty to those soldiers under him 
and to the people who had dealings with him, and gained 
the esteem and even the love of all, old and young, 
throughout the nation. This made the king's hatred of him 
all the stronger and he plotted to work his ruin. He sent one 
of his attendants to him, therefore, who, asking a private 
interview of David, told him : 

u Captain, our royal master loves you, as do all his ser- 
vants. His daughter Michal loves you, too, but with all a 
woman's love. Why not speak out, captain. The king 
cannot refuse her to one who has saved the country, as 
you have." 

But David shook his head, and answered : 

" My friend, I am a humble man. What is my father's 
family that I should dare propose to a princess. Is it a 
small matter to be the spouse of a daughter of the royal 
house ? I am poor, and have no riches to blot out my lack 
of greatness." 

With this the servant went back to the king, who bade 
him return to say : " The king is willing to give his daugh- 
ter to the brave captain. He asks no dowry from him, but 
himself. Let him go out with a force, however, and slay 
a hundred Philistines, and avenge the God they insult." 

Saul thought and hoped that the young warrior would be 
killed in the action. But David, praying as he always did, 
for him to be spared in the struggle by the divine mercy, 
if he were doing holy work, put himself at the head of an 
armed body and, meeting a large band of the Philistines on 
the border, he killed full two hundred of them. This 
gained for the young commander not only a wife in the 
Princess Michal, but still greater eminence in the people's 
opinion, while it increased Saul's ill will. 



134 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

Saul ordered his servants and his son Jonathan, who was 
there, to kill David wherever they should meet him, but the 
prince reproached his father and persuaded him to give 
over the wicked purpose and restore the victor of Goliath 
to favor. And, as a new war was on the eve of breaking 
out and such an assassination might weaken the king's pow- 
er, the latter relinquished his design for the present. 

In this new campaign, David enlarged his reputation as 
a warrior still more, for wherever he led, victory settled, 
and the enemy were nowhere successful against him. It 
was when the rejoicings were at their height, and as a fit 
of madness was again swaying the sovereign, that he, see- 
ing David before him, and playing with his jaVelin in his 
hand, aimed it at him and flung it. Expert as he was, he 
this third time missed, and the steel head of the missile 
only penetrated the wall. 

That night David escaped from the city and went secretly 
to his houst 1 . 

But Saul, in his cunning, had foreseen the intention and 
he hurried off a number of men who were to watch the 
house and despatch him whenever he should leave it. 
Michal espied them lurking about, and she watched them. 
She hastened to tell her husband, and, being fearful that 
they might break into the house, in which case there 
would have been no safety for him, she said she had found 
one window which they did not appear to be watching, 
and induced him to climb out of it and continue his flight. 
Tired of waiting, and wishing to be sure they had their 
prey yet within their nets, several of them asked admit- 
tance as they had orders from the king to deliver to her 
husband David. Michal told them he was asleep and ill, 
but, as they would not believe her, she, after a delay, led 
them to the sleeping-chamber, where, on the bed, she had 
dressed up a figure out of a pillow, which they fancied to 






DAVID. 135 

be the commander in slumber. This news, that David was 
abed with sickness and might be long kept in the house 
they sent off to their master. 

His wrath had not abated, for he came himself in answer, 
with more men, and he burst into the house, demanding to 
be shown the supposed sick man. The swords of his train 
went into the pillow only. 

" Why have you, Michal," said Saul, " let my enemy go V f 

" He is my husband, and he goes and comes as he wills. 
And he would have struck me dead if I had tried to 
stop him. And could I who know how much he has done 
for you and our country believe you meant harm to him ?" 

Meanwhile David had reached Ramah, where he lived 
with Samuel, the prophet who had anointed him. The 
men sent by the king after him there, were unable to exe- 
cute murder in the holy man's presence. When king Saul 
in person came that way, David fled and retraced his steps 
secretly and had a meeting with Prince Jonathan, who 
made an agreement with him as to how they should meet 
three days after the next, Jonathan meanwhile to do all he 
could to soften his father's heart and to report his success 
at that time. 

They swore faithfulness to one another. 

David hid himself in the fields. 

The next day was that of the new moon. There was a 
banquet in the royal chamber, and all the nobles were there 
around the monarch, except David, whose place was 
empty. Saul made no remark on the absence until tho 
next day when he asked where was Jesse's son. Jonathan 
answered that David had gone away to his own home, 
where his family were feasting. 

The king started up in rage, and he shook his clenched 
hand at his son. 

" Oh, Jonathan, that you should speak well of him who 



136 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

will be the downfall of our house. He is to succeed to 
your hurt, do you know it? Go, go, and have him seized. 
Surely he shall die !" 

" But, father, what has he done ? why should he, the Sa- 
vior of the nation, meet death ?" 

Infuriated, the king caught up his javelin, and threatened 
his son as he had threatened David with it. As fiery, too, 
Jonathan sprang up, and left the table, eating nothing that 
day in his grief. 

In the morning, at the hour appointed with David, the 
prince, with a little page with him, went out into the open 
ground. He had a bow and arrows with him, and he shot 
three so that they stuck in the ground and fell among the 
grass near a great stone, behind which David was concealed. 
The boy ran to pick up the arrows, when Jonathan called 
out, really to David, but apparently to the page : 

" Are they not farther on. Make haste, go !" 

The boy picked up the darts and returned, while David, 
who knew by this signal that all hope of being friends 
again with Saul was lost, fell on his knees to pray behind 
the rock. Then the prince gave the page his bow and 
quiver, and sent him to the palace with them, while he 
carefully went to meet his friend, and tell him the worst. 
They wept together, and with a last embrace, separated, 
Jonathan returning to the city ; David, by secret ways, mak- 
ing all speed to reach a cave near his old home at Bethle- 
hem, where his father and his relations came to see him. 

There he stayed, and there flocked to him many who 
were poor, afraid of their cruel creditors, and unhappy at 
home, asking him to be their head, till he became a captain 
of some four hundred men. His family, whom he was in 
fear would suffer if they fell into King Saul's hands, he 
left in charge of the King of Moab, in his realm, while he 
and his band took refuge in the Wood of Hareth. 



DAVID 137 

When David was in his wanderings, he had been shelter- 
ed and fed by a priest in the city of Nob, who had also given 
him, for he had fled in too much haste to have brought his 
arms, the sword of Goliath of Gath, which was placed as a 
trophy in the temple, and this David wore. Doeg, the 
chief herdsman of the royal household, had chanced to see 
the priest offer this hospitality, and he told Saul. * The king 
summoned not, only the priest himself before him, but all 
his relations and, though they said they did not know that 
David was then an enemy to their king, Saul nevertheless 
ordered their deaths. Doeg and his men slew eighty-five 
of the priesthood and made an assault on the city of the 
priests and put the citizens to the sword. One of the high 
priest's sons escaped and brought David this news. 

Other news came to David to the effect that the Philis- 
tines had made another inroad and were besieging Keilah 
and robbing all the small farmers outside the place of their 
grain. David mustered his force, which was nearly six 
hundred strong now, and marched thither. He surprised 
the enemy, who were only on the alert against the royal 
troops, and inflicted severe punishment on them, beside 
securing all the beasts of burden they had laden with the 
spoil. The grateful people of Keilah invited David to rest 
among them. 

Saul was informed that his foeman was in that walled 
place and he hurried with a force to surround him and cap- 
ture him. But David, who had reason to believe that the 
people of Keilah, who were too cowardly to beat off the 
Philistines plundering their farms, would hardly oppose 
the king, slipped out of town with his six hundred and 
took to the mountains. 

Saul, foiled as to taking him in the town, had him pur- 
sued but could never overtake him in the fastness of the 



138 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

heights. While in these woods, Jonathan had a meeting 
with his friend, and he encouraged him to continue his 
holy rebellion. At last, the mountaineers offered to sell 
the secret of David's hiding-place to the king, and they 
were guiding his forces to the spot when urgent news 
called off the royal troops, the Philistines — finding the 
frontier unguarded — having penetrated again. When he 
returned from his pursuit of them, David was in the Desert 
of Engedi, whither Saul hastened with three thousand 
picked men, meaning to search every bush and rock but he 
would find his enemy. 

It happened that the king went into a cave all alone, and 
fell asleep, so that David, who was hiding in that very same 
underground retreat, was urged by his men to take the life 
of him who so hunted him. David did go softly up to the 
sleeping man, and drew his dagger, but it was only to cut 
off the flowing skirt of his robe. This done, he returned 
to his men, quieted them and prevented them from falling 
upon the slumberer, saying it was a crime to harm the 
Lord's anointed. Tn time, Saul awoke and hurried to join 
his friends, who were no doubt seeking him. 

He had hardly left the cavern, than David ran after and 
called him, and when he turned, thinking it was an attend- 
ant in search of him, he bowed and said : " My lord the 
King, why will you listen to the people who say I, David, 
am thirsty for your blood ? This very moment, heaven has 
placed you under my hand in this cave, and some of my 
men wanted me to take advantage of the golden opportu- 
nity, saying I should obey Tubal Cain's proverb and strike 
while the metal was hot. But I could not, I would not 
bring myself to injure my lord, who is the Lord's anointed. 
See, see, here in my hand is the silken skirt of your robe. 
The sharp steel that sundered it might just as easily 



DAVID. 139 

have traveled the road to your life. But in this, see that 
my hand is no murderous one and that I am guiltless to- 
wards you. Will you hunt me still like a deer ?" 

And he displayed the cloth he had cut. 

" Is that your voice, my son David ?" said Saul relenting, 
and even tearful. "Yes, you are far more righteous than I, 
for you have repaid evil with good. I see that heaven des- 
tines you as a worthier tenant of my throne. Swear only 
to me that you will not slay all mv descendants." 

David took the oath, and Saul drew off his forces. 

But the king was not the man to let a good thought have 
a long, lasting impression on him, and, when tempted one 
day by the mountaineers, who came to say it would be easy 
to capture David in Ziph, he hurried with a large force and 
encamped around a hill in the Desert of Ziph, for they had 
arrived there at too late an hour for anything to be done 
that night. But David's scouts had seen the foe, and had 
brought him intelligence of it. In the dark, then, David 
chose one of his best lieutenants, and — calculating correctly 
that the royal troops would be too wearied with their long 
march in the hot sun, not to sleep well in the coolness — the 
two passed the sentinels fast asleep leaning on their spears, 
went. by the slumbering soldiers and reached the centre of 
the camp where lay the king with Abner the commander 
of the army near him. 

David's companion plucked Saul's spear out of the 
ground beside him and poised it, looking on his leader in- 
quiringly. 

" See, captain." said he, " the Lord who before placed 
him in your power, here does so again. Shall I pierce him 
through and through with his own lance ?" 

" Stay — no !" cried David. " Let no one touch the Lord's 
anointed. He alone who set him above us, should deal the 



HO THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

death blow. Bat carry the spear," added David, and he 
stooped and picked up the king's drinking-bottle. 

They stole away as they had come, unseen, David look- 
ing in vain over the silent camp for his friend the prince, ; 
who was not with the forces. The two reached, unsus- 
pected, the top of a high hill overlooking the encampment. 

David shouted loudly : " Abner, Abner, I say I M 

The general was awakened. 

" Who calls ?" answered he. 

David cried, so that the royalists all heard him. " Ab- 
ner, you are an old soldier unequalled in Israel, and foi 
that you are the king's special guard, but you let men come 
to the king's very side and remove his own spear and 
water-bottle. See !" 

And he shook the bottle and his companion brandished 
the spear in the gloom, which was not so dense but that 
the startled enemy could discern their outlines. 

Saul knew the voice, and he called : " Is not that my son 
David, who speaks V* 

" Yes, my lord. Oh, why do you run down your servant 
as the swiftly-mounted do the ostrich, as the wolf the 
iamb ?" 

" I have sinned, I have broken my promise, I know," said 
King Saul, " but come back, my son David, and trust me 
again. I will never more even wish you ill, for you have 
still again been generous to me." 

" Here is the spear that I kept from your breast — send 
one of your followers for it." 

The goods returned, they parted, the outlaw and the 
king. But David could not trust the faithless monarch, 
and he dared not disband his men and give himself to his 
ruler. He went into the hostile country to King Achish of 
Gath, who gave him a town to inhabit with his men. 



DAVID. 141 

There he lived more than a year, fighting and spoiling ene- 
mies, but telling King Achish that it was his own country- 
men that he had the conflicts with. This made Achish 
glad in the idea that David could not return to his friends 
after these attacks on them, and would have to be his ser- 
vant forever. 

By this time, the war began again, and great masses of both 
Philistines and Israelites faced one another. King Achish 
had David and his followers among his train, but the other 
Philistine princes, recognizing David as he who had so de- 
feated them in former times, would not let him form any 
part of their forces for fear he and his would turn traitors 
during the fight. So he had to return to his home at 
Ziklag. 

On the third morning, the scouts descried a dark speck 
on the horizon which enlarged by noon into a column which 
seemed to be smoke. With fearful hearts David's men 
quickened their pace and, when they reached what had 
been their happy homes, they found the town destroyed 
with fire, and deserted. Wives, sons, mothers, and daugh- 
ters, all were gone. At so universal a loss they fell on 
their knees and burst into tears, grim and war-worn soldiers 
as they were, and they were enraged against David for hav- 
ing taken them away from those they loved and ought to 
have protected from the unknown fate that had befallen 
them. But David, though all dear to him were also gone, 
prayed, and begged them to be trusting in God, trying to 
assure them that He permits no evil to the good save for 
His glory and to test their faith. And to lose no time, he 
collected all, and started in chase. 

The unknown persons who had done the mischief were so 
numerous as to have left a broad track easily followed. At 
such a quick pace did they, burning with eagerness to 
come up with the robbers, go that a third of them were 



142 



THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 



tired out, and, broken with grief as well, they had to halt 
at a brookside. The other fonr hundred had not gone far 
before they came upon a young stranger who was found all 
but lifeless in a field, and he was led to David. They had 
to feed him and give him to drink, for he made signs that 
he had been hungry and in thirst for three days and nights. 

On being questioned, he replied that was a } r oung Egypt- 
ian bondman to an Amalekite, a whole band of whom had 
scoured the border land of Judea and, on reaching Ziklag 
as the end of their inroad, burnt and pillaged it. Ard he 
offered if his life was spared and they would not let his 
master have him again, he would be only too glad to be 
revenged in guiding them to his late superiors. For, on 
his falling sick, three days previously, his master had said 
they could not be burdened with Egyptian dogs in their 
flight and there he had been left to perish in the sun and 
dews. David assured him of his life, and others fiercely 
growled that he might be sure his master would have no 
more slaves, if he should lead them to him. 

The Egyptian was a faithful pilot. He conducted the 
party of avengers to where the robbers were halted to 
feast on the great booty they gained from both Israelites 
and Philistines. At the height of their festivity, their sing- 
ing, dancing and drinking, the men of David rushed upon 
them, and left hardly one. Everything that had been taken 
from Ziklag, living and dead, was recovered, over and 
above many other things. There was such a superabun- 
dance that David sent a great many valuables to the chief 
men of the different tribes of Judah, his countrymen and 
friends, and to those who had sheltered him when he was 
so hunted from spot to spot. 

During this time, the Philistines had had a great strife 
Hith their enemy, aud had been the conquerors, and pur- 
sued the routed Israelites closely, killing three of Saul's 



DAVID. 143 

eons, among the press. Saul himself was wounded in the 
joints of his armor by arrows, and, for fear that the foe 
would have him prisoner and shame him by bearing him 
caged through their cities, he — finding none of his friends 
would do so — held out his sword before him and, falling on 
it, died thus transfixed. The vanquishers cut off his head, 
took his armor and his body, and bore all away with them 
along with his sons' corpses, to put his head on show in 
their country, to hang his armor up in their gods' house, 
and to fasten his and his sons' trunks to the walls of Beth- 
shan. 

The panic among the Israelites spread from the defeated 
army to the inhabitants of distant parts from the battle- 
field and all were in fear. Not all, for a handful of val- 
iant men got together and, in the night, went to Bethshan 
and removed the bodies of their monarch and the dear ones 
fallen . 

It was not long after this battle, that David, who was not 
long returned successful to Ziklag, heard of it, and it 
caused the greatest mourning to him and his followers. 
He grieved above all for his dear friend Jonathan, whose 
love for him had been so wonderfully pure and strong. 
He passed his orders, and all the more readily from the 
blackened ruins of their homes being no pleasant sight — 
all his command started for Hebron of Judah, where, not 
only were the downcast people too glad to receive a rein- 
forcement of men so experienced in warfare, but they did 
more : they made David King of Judah. 

The general of Saul's army, however, had escaped and 
he— who was that Abner whom David had taunted 
on his poor guard before all the army on the hill — made 
Saul's son Ishbosheth King of Israel, over which he reigned 
two years. Abner was defeated in a skirmish with David's 
followers, (which began a great war between him and the 



144 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

supporters of Saul's house) and was slain long after, by a 
brother of a man he had killed in that skirmish. Two 
wicked brothers, judging others by themselves, thought 
they would gain much for themselves by assassinating 
King Ishbosheth. They did stab him, and brought his 
head to David. But he, in horror and in indignation, was 
enraged against such atrocious murderers, and he ordered 
them to be executed, as was done. 

All the tribes of Israel came and made David the king, so 
that he was without a contestent in the realm. For a long 
time, he reigned, and, all the while that he did what was 
right, he and his kingdom was blessed. But amid so much 
prosperity, he was unable to preserve the pure heart which 
had preserved him up to then, and his punishment thus 
came on him. 

His most-loved son Absalom, more handsome than well- 
behaved unfortunately, began to work against his father, 
commencing his sedition by winning the hearts of every 
man with whom he came in contact. At the time when he 
left the palace of his father to begin the outbreak against 
him, so many were on his side that there was no hope of 
King David resisting the rebellion. Flight was the only 
safety for the monarch. 

There were hundreds who loved him who were eager to 
go with him, but he refused their company. It was 
enough that he should bear the annoyance and pains of so 
hasty a departure. But, for all that, by the time he had 
crossed the River Jordan, he had quite a force with him, 
composed in the most part of his old soldiers, hardy men 
of war. 

The army of the rebels was greatly superior in number 
and it was headed by the new King Absalom. They 
brought the dethroned monarch to bay near the house of 
Manahaim. The loyalists held that place, and their centre 



DAVID. 145 

and left wing was in the outskirts of the Forest of 
Ephraim. At early dawn, they were attacked by the right 
wing of the rebels, who tried to clear the woods and 
reach the open ground before the city. 

At the first shouts and the sounds of battle ringing over 
the trees and coming to the ears of the commanders at the 
town, King David announcing his intention of advancing in 
person with the party going to support the slingers and 
archers skirmishing under the cedars. But the command- 
ers would not agree to that. 

" No, no," said Joab and his brother, each general of a 
division. " If we are beaten, they will not care to pursue 
us hotly. If we die, who cares for us, old dogs of war ? 
But you are worth two thousand to the cause. Stay in the 
city, my lord the King. You will be a tower of strength 
to whoever is left." 

" As you say, let it be," replied David, standing by the 
.gate and reviewing the supporting columns defiling towards 
the unillumined horizon. 

As they passed, spearmen, bowmen, horsemen, footmen, 
they* shouted for their king, and amid their rejoicing, more 
than one brow darkened and the sword was gripped fierce- 
ly as they swore that the unnatural son should be made to 
suffer for so paining a father and so injuring the country. 
This reached the kings ears from two or three parties, and 
he hastened to say loudly to his generals, loudly enough 
for the passing files to hear : 

" Remember, sirs, and soldiers, to deal gently with the 
young rebel. For my sake do no harm to Absalom." 

Meanwhile, the rebels, full of the idea that their num- 
bers made them irresistible, had driven back their enemy 
on the extreme right, but they began to be entangled in the 
wood, and had to call a halt two or three times, and wait 
for reinforcements. It was about noon when two-thirds 

r 



146 THE BOYS OF THE BIBL1. 

of their serried and long line were well in among the trees 
and thickets. The darkness and the fact of the ground be- 
ing unknown to them, were greatly in favor of the loyal- 
ists, who had well studied the landmarks since they had 
come to Manahaim. Most of Absalom's forces were light 
troops, whose arms were javelins, slings and bows, and 
these could be but little used in among the oaks and 
cedars, whose entangled arms blotted out views of the sky 
above. The men under Joab, his brother and David's other 
general Ittai, were veterans accustomed to the short sword 
and heavy lance. 

By wading through a broad pond and floundering over a 
morass around it, which had been deemed impassible by 
Absalom's leaders, Joab led a strong picked body of two 
thousand swordsmen, and three hundred with spears, di- 
rectly between the main body and the right wing of the 
rebels. At the signal given by blasts of goatherds' horns 
they fell upon the flank of the pretender's own guards. 

Taken by surprise, pulled off their steeds and stabbed to 
death while dragged to the ground, confused at finding 
their lines entered before they had suspected an enemy 
to be near them, many were slaughtered before a few 
had presence of mind enough to rally around Absalom. 
Hurling their light darts on the assailants, they tried 
to carry off their chief towards the guard of their camp 
equipage, but Cushi had already led off nearly five hun- 
dred young men and ran thither. They turned back, met 
Joab again in the wood and stood. 

While they were maintaining the best and stoutest 
front they could, a lieutenant in Absalom's guard, who 
mounted a mule of great swiftness, proposed that his mas- 
ter should change helmet and horse with him, and try to 
join the left wing and the remains of the centre, seeming to 
be sturdily advancing under Amaza the commander-in-chief 



DAVID. 14T 

of the disloyal. They hurriedly made the transfer, and Ab- 
salom, with the guardsman's helmet on his head and the 
guardsman's fast mule under him, dug his sharp-heeled san- 
dals into the animal and rode off. 

At the same moment, Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, and 
Phumah, nephew of Ittai the Gittite (who had vowed a vow 
that morning to out-do one another in the battle) charged 
the band of rebels sword in hand, some fifty reckless young 
men like themselves along with them. A score of them 
fell, pinned to the earth or to trees by javelins, but the 
rest cut openings through the foemen's front line. While 
cutting with their broad blades at the bucklers of bullhide, 
brass and iron scales, and at the weapons bristling against 
them, the guardsman wearing Absalom's golden-thread 
tunic and gilt metal cap, was foremost in striking at them. 
Phumah fancied he was some eminent leader in such attire, 
and he doubled his exertions to reach him and tear him from 
his saddle. But the lieutenant, wielding an axe, which 
the skirmishers had had to employ in marching through 
the thicket, and which he had picked up to replace his 
broken sword, dealt the Gittite two such cuts on the shoul- 
der that, not dead, though his collar-bone was broken, Phu- 
mah sank to the ground in agony. At the same moment 
that a spearman put him out of pain, Ahimaaz sprang like 
a tiger on his slayer, stood on his own stirrup, grappled him 
and — holding his hands and the blood-dripping axe out of 
harm's way, passed his broad sword between his gorget 
and the top of his breast-plate so that, after piercing his 
throat, the point scratched the back plate. Choking with 
blood, the lieutenant fell from the pretender's horse. 

The victor fancied it was Absalom himself who had thus 
fallen, but only for a moment for Joab and others knew the 
prince too well to be deceived. 

During this while, Absalom, only guided by the sounds 



148 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

of the action which changed in place and loudness every 
instant, had wandered out of the path, scarcely perceptible. 
The mule, already frightened by the horrid noises all around 
— the shrieks of wounded, the cries for quarter, the groans 
and moans, the fierce shouts of the chargers and the defiant 
response of the charged, the whinnying of horses, the whistle 
of missiles, the crash of penetrated undergrowth — moved 
fitfully and started at every gnarled trunk in the way. Every 
now and then, anxious at not having reached his friends, 
and fearful that stragglers from hostile bands might chance 
upon him at any moment, Absalom reined in, and listened 
and looked. In one of these pauses, he heard a rushing 
through the brush. He believed it was his friends who 
came, but prudently wheeled around so as to flee if the 
worst should be what came. 

A score of fierce faces, besmeared with blood as much 
from the fight as from the briars, appeared, with eyes glist- 
ening with the light of battle, amid the tangled creepers of 
a wild grape-vine. He hesitated, but as the words " one 
of the rebels ! down with him !" rent the air hoarsely from 
a dozen throats, he knew his guardsman's helmet had be- 
trayed him, and he dashed off. A shower of arrows rattled 
through the foliage around him. One broke the lacing of 
his iron cap, and two more not only cut off the plume upon 
it, but tore it altogether from his head. A fourth wounded 
the mule, and left a bleeding streak along its haunch. With 
a neigh of pain, the animal gritted its teeth on the bit and 
sprang away. 

The prince's hair was unloosed and it streamed back 
like a horse's tail. Absalom's hair was famous for its 
length, great beauty, and quantity. Hardly a woman's 
could in any respect equal it. By this very vanity he was 
punished ; so true is it that most wrong things are their 
own executioners. 



DAVID. 149 

The frightened and wounded animal, still more alarmed 
at the steps behind, flew along like an arrow, but in rush- 
ing under a large oak, whose boughs were low-lying, its 
rider's hair and his head was entangled in the branches, and 
his feet being shaken free, the mule dashed on in its way 
of terror. In pain as he was, yet the self-ensnared captive 
did not dare to raise a call for help, for he heard the fol- 
lowers of David, who were chasing him, halt close by. 
They listened till the sound of the mule's steps died awaj% 
and, regretting their being on foot, and reasoning that the 
supposed officer of high rank was safe now from them, 
they turned away. 

With all his endeavors, Absalom only tired himself out 
in his endeavors to free himself. All he could do, through- 
out the weary hours, while the ever-changing din of battle 
never ceased around him, was to ease the strain by holding 
himself up by his hands till his fingers were benumbed by 
the blood being pressed out of them, and his arms ached 
with their awkward position. To make matters worse his 
jewelled dagger had been shaken out of its sheath, and 
he could not cut himself loose. 

At last as he was hoarsely calling for the help that did 
not come, a straggling man of Joab's division, peeped 
through the thicket and espied him, but he did not dare to 
touch him. 

Meanwhile, the woods saw the death of full twenty 
thousand by steel, stone and clubs, and the rebels were 
driven from the field at every point. 

The commanders were inquiring as to the fallen and cap- 
tured of the enemy, when the man who had seen the 
hanged prince told Joab of it. 

" What ! you a soldier of mine, and a good one, too. 
Taol !" cried the leader, " and you know so little of your 
duty as not to have struck him to the ground ! Had you 



150 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

made sure of his death — for his beaten friends may have 
relieved him now — I would have given you a sword belt 
of price and ten pieces of silver." 

" But, general, I heard, as well as the rest of our compa- 
ny, his majesty the king charge you and the other com- 
manders to spare Prince Absalom. Why, after that, as the 
Lord liveth, general, I would not harm him for a thousand 
coins of gold. Am I to kill kings' sons ? Nothing can be 
hidden from King David, and he — and you yourself — would 
have punished me." 

" A fig for your reason, soldier mine. Be a better guide 
than you are smiter, and hasten to lead me to the place in 
the woods where the rebel's long locks have twisted them- 
selves into a rope, to hang him. Follow, some of you." 

They hurried through the forest, thickly strewn with 
dead and dying, and found Absalom still there, faint with 
pain. He could hardly look out of his agonized eyes. He 
had hardly opened his lips, white with anguish, than Joab 
snatched two or three light javelins from the nearest sol- 
dier, and flung them at the suspended prince. They en- 
tered every one of them the poor man's body, but he still 
lived. Whereupon, half-a-dozen of Joab's attendants fell 
upon him with their swords, cut him down from the tree, 
and despatched him. There was a large hollow in the 
woods, into which they flung the dead body, and covered 
it all over by rolling in logs and huge rocks on it. They 
blew the recall then, and the pursuers began to flock in 
from hunting down the fugitives. 

King David was sitting with the old men between the 
gate posts. Around them were a small body of guards 
who kept the women and children at a distance. Watch- 
men, who had been chosen for goodness of sight, were 
walking on top of the city walls, and reporting as well as 
they could, the events of the distant action. All day they 



DAVID. 151 

had seen men go into the forest, where the slaughter went 

on, but none came out. 

Suddenly a shout arose. A man was descried coming 

over the open ground that way. 

" As he is alone, you say," remarked King David, " he 
must be a messenger." 

But, behind the first, was a second runner. 

" Another news-bearer," said the king. 

The first man reached the gate. It was Ahimaaz. He 
cried out as he neared the group : "All is well!" for he 
saw the look of inquiry and of anxiety on every face as 
they beheld him, streaked with blood, powdered with dust, 
his clothes and buckler torn and hacked with sharp bough, 
briars and weapons. They made way for him up to the 
king, before whom he fell down and knelt. 

" Praise and thanks," said he in a voice hoarse with 
shouting in battle, " to the ever-just Judge, to the God who 
giveth victory to his people." 

" But is the young man Absalom safe ?" said King David. 

Ahimaaz kept his eyes downcast as he replied : " As I 
left the field there was a great tumult as of the capture of 
some chief, but I was in too much haste to stop." 

" Rest yourself," said the king. " Here, stand by me." 

As Ahimaaz rose, the second courier arrived. It was 
Cushi, who had been sent by Joab, and whom the other 
had preceded expressly to spare his master the painful 
news. 

" News, my lord the king," cried out the new-comer, 
" The Lord hath punished the rebellious, and they are scat- 
tered like chaff who rose against your majesty." 

4 ' But is the young man Absalom safe ?" asked the king, 
tremulous with anxiety and half rising to catch the answer 
sooner. 

" My lord," replied the messenger, " may all evildoers and 



152 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

breakers of the peace of the realm be as that young man 
is!" 

The king fell back in his seat, but, rising tremblingly 
and hiding his face with his hands, through which trickled 
tears, he went up into his house. The people, full of more 
interest in his grief than in the battle, gathered around, 
and they heard him, poor old bereaved monarch, wail : 

" Oh my son Absalom, my son, my son, I would to hea- 
ven I had died for you, Absalom, my son, my son !" 

And in this violent way he subbed, although the glad- 
some blare of trumpets and the cheers of victory from the 
returning hosts, came before long to the ear. And the van- 
quishers lowered their waving swords and the trophies, 
and turned their rejoicing into mourning. Instead of 
marching gaily, they stole into the city noiselessly, and 
with hanging heads like guilty ones. All this while the 
king, with covered face, was continuing his weeping. No 
one dared to approach him and try to enterrupt him or al- 
lay his griefs. But Joab, at length, boldly strode into the 
royal chamber, his mail clattering as he walked. The king 
looked up at the sound, for his emotion had been previously 
respected. 

" My royal master," said the general, " you are making us 
ashamed who have saved the lives of you and yours by 
showing that you love your enemies and hate your dearest 
friends. Any one can see that you would be better pleased 
to see your rebellious son Absalom alive to-day than to 
see us otherwise than dead under our shields and splintered 
weapons from his folio wers' wounds. I say, my master, 
that you should come out and see the people who have spilt 
their blood and braved their lives for you. If you do not, 
all the evil that may have befallen you from your boyhood 
up to this seventieth year of yours, will be nothing to 
what will happen to you now." 



DAVID 153 

The returned combatants had gone to their tents, and, in 
disappointment and gloom, they were brooding over the 
victory which was darker than a defeat, when the news 
spread that the king, with washed face and head erect, was 
calling his old comrades and faithful subjects to him. They 
clustered about him with brightening faces and all was un- 
clouded joy, when he thanked them for the deeds of valor 
they had accomplished under the forest trees and out on 
the plain that day. 

After this great rout of the rebels, they were only too 
glad to throw down their arms, yield, and, with their allies, 
beg King David to resume his throne in Jerusalem. There 
he reigned for some years longer, having only the enemies 
of neighboring countries to contest with. Before he died, 
he chose his son Solomon to continue his name and replace 
him on the throne, and David, three score years since the 
day he had been the bravest in the whole army and had 
slain Goliath, breathed his last on a royal couch, to which 
by heavenly assistance and his own faithfulness he had 
been elevated from the straws he had slept on as a 
shepherd's boy. 
7* 



151 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 



SOLOMON. 



As King David was dying of old age, and all were in 
doubt as to who would be his successor, many considered 
that he would appoint his favorite, a young man named Ad- 
onijah, who was so much beloved by him as to be styled in 
familiar speech, David's darling. Adonijah's mother flat- 
tered him into this belief and already he began to enjoy the 
rank he promised himself. He had a right royal retinue to 
accompany him wherever he went, a number of chariots 
drawn by two and three horses, and fifty men were the 
least in number he would have as escort. He and his fol- 
lowers were the more assured, in the expectancy of the 
regal dignity by the old king not having reproved this pre- 
mature display. 

On a certain day, Adonijah had assembled many of the 
nobles and men of influence at a feast. For the food there 
had been cooked an abundance of sheep, calves, oxen and 
kids ; nuts, grapes, figs, honey, olives, other fruit, wine, rare 
birds and all the delicacies of the day were on the long ta- 
ble. They were rejoicing loudly, all the guests and crying 
out, between every toothsome mouthful and rich draught. 

" Long live King Adonijah !" They had regaled to their 
hearts' content and they were about to continue their riot, 
when several at the window lifted their hands to demand 
attention and hush the laughing and jests over the aged 
monarch whose death they were desiring. All of a sud- 



M 



19 

if 



P 



c 

2 



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DAVID. 155 

den, a blast of a score of trumpets broke forth and rent the 
perfumed air of the banquetting chamber. 

"Hark!" cried they all, some feeling alarm. 

But no warlike sounds succeeded. Instead of that the 
music of pipes and stringed instruments tuned in joyfulness 
followed the harsher brazen strain. And cheer after cheer 
of great multitudes rose to the ears of the favorite's 
guests. 

" Can it be ?" said they all, smiling. 

Adonijah was no less gladsome than they, and wished 
them joy, each in the position that he had promised them. 
Some were going out in high glee to confirm what they sus- 
pected, when a priest's son, well known to them, met them, 
and was led to the room. Adonijah hastened to take off 
his cloth of gold coat and was about to slip it over the 
head of the new comer, saying : " Receive your reward^ 
oh bearer of good tidings, as I see you are from your smile- 
wreathed face !" 

But the man put out his hand. 

" My lord, our lord, King David, has said that his succes- 
sor shall be " 

" I know, myself. Thanks " 

" Nay, my lord. His son Solomon is king !" 

" No 1" cried the favorite fiercely, and he gripped the 
man's arm. " Don't jest with me !" 

" In solemn truth, my lord, King Solomon is on the 
throne." 

Seeing the looks of doubt and disbelief, the priest's son 
hastened to say in hurried accents : 

" My lord and sirs, Nathan the prophet and all the great 
soldiers of David had an audience of the king. They 
mounted Solomon on his father's own mule, and have 
anointed him and crowned him King over all Israel. The 
country is receiving the news with rejoicing, and you can 



156 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

hear the city acclaim the new sovereign. I was detained 
at the palace till now — I hope you will pardon my delay — 
and I heard King David bless his heir myself." 

The guests, who were seized with fear, did not say a 
word to him or to one another or to the favourite, but 
crept away to their own homes. Adonijah himself was 
affected by the same alarm and he lost no time in fleeing 
into the temple, where he clung to the altar, begging King 
Solomon to swear his life would be spared, or else he 
would not leave the sanctuary. The new monarch sent 
him word that the past was as nothing to him. If Adoni- 
jah should prove himself a well-doing man, no one should 
harm him ; otherwise justice should be dealt to him. On 
this promise Adonijah came and made obeisance to the 
king whose place he had coveted. But he conspired 
again afterwards, and was executed. Thereafter there was 
no disturbance to the lawful ruler. 

But, great as was King Solomon, he continued to follow 
the counsels of his father, and he was gentle and kind of 
heart as any among his numerous subjects. His whole 
prayer was — not for glories, riches, successes in wars, ex- 
tension of domains, but for such wisdom as would let him 
guide his people properly. Because he was thus moderate 
in his ambition, heaven listened to his supplications, and 
made him wiser than any man before his time ; and be- 
sides, gave him what he had not desired in such abundance 
that no monarch has ever equalled his magnificence . 

To show his sageness, we may tell again the story of his 
judgment. 

He was holding a religious feast in Jerusalem, when the 
soldiers of the door of the banquetting house barred the 
way to a noisy crowd, who seemed, headed by two clam- 
oring women, to be eager to force an entrance. High 
above the wrangling voices, rose the cry : " Let us in, 



SOLOMON. 151 

guards ! let thein in! Let us hear the wise King Solomon 
adjudge. Let them in !" The king ordered the entry to 
be given, and, as soon as the crossed swords had been low- 
ered from the doorway, the two women, abashed, were 
pushed into the royal presence. 

The table had been removed to one side. 

One of the women held, closely clasped to her breast, a 
child on which her whole gaze was fastened, so that she 
had no eyes for the spectators, the courtiers, the soldiers, 
or for the sovereign himself seated on his raised dais of 
scarlet. The other, an instant dazzled by the display, to 
which she was far from accustamed, preserved her bold 
air, and, despite the royal presence, glared fiercely at the 
other and the babe. 

" Speak, you," said Solomon. 

" my lord, I am glad one of your wisdom is to judge 
of my truth. I and this false creature live in the same 
house, and we both had little babes, of which this is mine. 
We were all alone there. Her child died, some way or 
another, but she — cunning Philistine — crept into my room 
of a night and took away my dear boy, leaving the corpse 
in its stead. I awoke with the dead in my arms, but the 
morning light told me quickly of the trick. I asked for 
mine back again, but she won't give it. She resisted me, 
too, till the neighbors came in and helped her. I've made 
her come here, though. I know my lord is wise and right- 
eous," added she, striving to prejudice the awarder. 

" My lord," said the other bowing, and speaking tearfully, 
" I am guiltless of such cruelty. My child is here, where 
it should be. As the Lord — who planted you on the 
throne you adorn — doth live, this is my boy." 

All was hushed. Among the bystanders, a thousand 
doubts ran ; as many were for one as for the other contest- 
ant. They turned their eyes on the king. His brow was 



158 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE 

clouded and almost frowning for a moment, but then it 
cleared. 

"Zabud," said he to his principal officer, who stood 
by the side of the steps of the throne, " lend me your 
sword. Gallant blade as it is, innocent blood will not 
harm it," added he in a low voice. Then aloud : " Woman, 
give the child to the lieutenant of my guards beside you." 

Awkwardly the man of war took the infant in his hands 
out of the reluctant ones of the woman, who could scarcely 
repress her sobs. The king held out the borrowed sword 
to his officer and said : 

" Take it, sir. Now, strike as you have struck my fath- 
er s enemies — sever the child in twain. Let each claimant 
be content with her just half." 

The babe was held out in one hand, the steel flashed 
broadly rising over it, when a scream from an almost 
breaking heart rang out and shook the silken hangings. 
The woman who was accused was wrestling with the 
guards, in agony. The other's eyes were glistening, and 
hardly smothering a laugh of savage pleasure, she said 
eagerly : " Yes, yes, my lord, divide it, rather than give it 
me or her." 

But the sobbing one, held back from shielding the 
menaced infant, gasped : " No, no, no ! Oh, God ! Oh, king, 
do not slay my darling ! Give it to her first !" 

She swooned in the soldier's arms, for she feared the 
loved child was already dead. 

Solomon rose. 

" You see," said he to all. " Give the boy to the mother 
— who she is, is only too plain." 

And the poor tortured woman, recovering from her faint, 
hugged the recovered treasure to her bosom, thanked the 
Ring a thousand times, and, amid kisses and tears of joy 
over her babe, went away with light step and smiling face. 



SOLOMON. 159 

The other, from whom all recoiled, hid her face and fled 
from the audience hall, amid execrations that followed 
her steps even in the streets. 

The King did not neglect his time, but, using his great 
opportunities, studied the natures of all living things, man, 
the animals, plants. Travelers came from remote regions 
to hear him speak and gather his words. He had a large 
army and a fine navy, which he employed principally to 
bring him objects unattainable at home from farther lands. 

Among those whose curiosity was excited by the revela- 
tions of King Solomon's knowledge and magnificence, was 
the Queen of Sheba who was not satisfied with any but 
personal acquaintance with him. 

She journeyed, therefore, to Jerusalem, with a large car- 
avan of camels and dromedaries, laden with precious spices 
and stones, and with a great quantity of gold in lamps and 
dust and in manufactured articles. These she presented to 
her brother monarch after her arrival. She had imagined 
that the accounts which had gone to her of Solomon's splen- 
dor had gathered as they went, but she was undeceived at 
the sight of his palace, with its grand entrance-porch of 
the most sweet-scented cedar, and carved as cunningly as 
could be desired, and with its lofty audience-hall where she 
was received. 

Over colored marble she walked to reach the throne, the 
way to which was hedged with courtiers, guards and cen 
ser-bearers, from whose golden fire-bowls streamed upward 
the inter-mixing aromas of frankincense, myrrh, calamus, 
saffron, and other perfumes. The royal seat was of ivory, 
the pieces of great purity and dimension, secured in place 
by gilt-headed nails and bands of the same valuable ore. 
Six lions of cast gold guarded each side of the steps to the 
chair, and two more, larger and even more life-like, stood at 
the side of the chair itself. 



160 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

No silver was used because it had become common from 
its exceeding plenty throughout the realm, as had oedar 
wood, which by treaty, the King of Tyre sent to Jerusalem 
in abundance. 

And Solomon himself struck the ravished view of the 
queen as well beseeming the truly regal show. In his 
ivory seat, lined with crimson worked in gold thread by 
the needlewomen, and studded with sapphires and onyx, 
he sat. His crown was all the brighter from encircling the 
head of luxuriant black hair, his beard was curled and glis- 
tening with perfumed oils. His eyes shone on her pleas- 
antly, but they could flash royally at need. Gold rings 
were on his soft, well-formed hands, and his robe, a present 
from the king of Tyre, was of the unrivalled purple, which 
was the secret dye of that nation alone. 

The haughty head of the queen bent before so much, and 
it was only on his sweet-toned voice addressing her, that 
she regained strength to reach the throne. 

She made her visit longer than she expected, for every 
day he had something new to show her. 

One day, it was his country retreat in the Forest of Leb- 
anon, inlaid with precious stones and built of choice cedar. 
Then rides in his chariot of cedar, too, the wheels of silver, 
the sides of the body of gold and the lining of embroidered 
purple, while the horses, of the best Egyptian breed, were 
covered with* silk-edged lion and leopard skins, a body of 
pompously accoutred horseman and footmen surrounding 
the royal host and guests. Visits to where vast vineyards 
extended under a merry sun and tossed the ruddy clusters 
of their fruit, to orchards quite as ample where apples, 
pomegranates and citrons, ripened and mellowed, all the 
while making the sweet air still more balmy by their ema- 
nations, to the fishponds in whose transparent depths were 
to be seen strange and handsome members of the finny 



SOLOMON. 161 

tribe so tame as to come to be fed from the hand of those 
they knew, to the reservoirs of water to supply the woods 
and gardens, whose broad sheets upheld boats of great 
size. To the gardens : through them they strolled, inhal- 
ing the fragrance from countless beds of lilies white and 
purple, of roses, of a thousand other buds and blossoms and 
of rare plants brought from retired retreats in wild woods 
leagues away. To the aviaries where birds of all kinds 
flaunted their variegated plumage and graceful shapes, 
where doves, as white as if they had been washed in milk 
or ringed about the neck as if they wore jewelled chains, 
fluttered and cooed melodiously on the almond trees, be- 
neath which strutted the peacock with unfolded feathers. 
To see the royal flocks sheared by a hundred at one time, 
to see the goats branded, to see the foxes who had come 
to eat the grapes, hunted and killed. Or the queen rested, 
under a tent of silk with gold-thread tassels, while defiled 
before her the scarcely numberable ranks of Solomon's 
guard and army : Silken banners, gilt scabbards, fine steel, 
polished lances, proud chargers, and dromedaries of war, 
forming a novel sight for her dazzled gaze. 

She said one day : " Oh, king without a rival, where can 
such glory be paralleled ? Nowhere, of course." 

" But yes," said he. " There is One greater than I can 
ever dream to be, for I am but man. There is One wiser 
more powerful, more adored. His house, too, in my king- 
dom owed to Him, outshines by night the finest of mine. 
Will you see ?" 

He escorted the Queen of Sheba from his own to the holy 
house, and showed her what she might see of the Temple. 

The instruments for the fires and sacrifices were of pol- 
ished brass; the basins and candlesticks were of gold. 
The massive stand for the priests to wash their hands in 



162 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

was a great sheet of brass supported on the backs of 
twelve brazen oxen. 

Two images of cherubims, whose gold-plated wings 
reached from one side of the house to the other, stood up 
and faced the altar. The veil that shrouded the Mystery 
was of interwoven blue, purple, and crimson threads of 
finest linen and its rods were gilt. The altar was brass 
and most marvellously cast and engraved; over it were 
outstretched the wings of the cherubims. The lamps were 
gold, and so were the chains they swung by. 

Around all these rose the lofty walls decorated with 
carvings of angels and the blessings of heaven as shown in 
plants that give food to man. And above all was a ceiling 
of choice wood, plated with gold. The doorways were 
made of olive wood, enriched with sculpture. The pave- 
ment was wood in some parts, in other stone. 

"When the Queen of Sheba saw the ceremony proceed 
within the Temple, the sacred race of the priesthood 
officiating, the clouds of incense arising, she felt her heart 
much more impressed by this solemn glory than by Sol- 
omon's more glittering pomp, and — though she had already 
said : " Happy are your servants who can hear of your 
wisdom daity, and look on your sumptuousness," she said. 
" Still happier must you be, oh, wise King Solomon, to feel 
the Lord your King has delight in you so far as to thus 
show His love for you." 

But Solomon had yet to show one thing : that he was 
mortal. He sinned, and bitterly he was made to repent his 
luxury, for the pains that pleasure not pure always entails, 
were showered thickly and heavily upon him. But, never- 
theless, it was in peace that he died and that his sons suc- 
ceeded him to the crown. 



HEZEKIAH. 163 



HEZEKIAH. 



This is a picture of the times during which passed the 
boyhood years of Hezekiah the son of King Ahaz the 
wicked ruler to whom lay many of the causes of the dark- 
ness over the sinful nation. 

The border of Israel no longer extended to the Red Sea, 
of which their last port had been taken. Enemies in large 
and small bands roved over the land as they pleased, only 
not daring to go near the defended towns. The faint-heart- 
ed farmers, finding they sowed for others to reap, left their 
fields. These being robbed of their tiller's care, went to 
ruin. There was neither spring, nor summer nor winter-fig, 
which were plucked off unripe, and the wood itself burnt, 
with the ploughs, harrows, wains, drags, ox-carts and tim- 
bers of abandoned cottages, at th^ camp-fires of invaders. 
Briars covered the orchards, thistles choked up surviving 
grain, thorn bushes climbed into the almond and citron 
trees, the vineyard lattices were overrun with wild creep- 
ers and the grapes that were still borne were bitter as gall- 
nutts. The grass failed and, when it did grow feebly, it 
had the sickly yellow hue of spoilt hay. The great trees 
were felled and taken off on the spared cart-wheels, by the 
stolen cattle. The hostile parties, on fleet steeds, encircled 
the towns and prevented communication ; so that nothing 
living disturbed tne smooth dust of the highways except, 
perhaps, packs of wild dogs feeding on murdered wayfar- 
ers and flung stripped into the roadside ditches. The val- 
lies had no sounds to send up to the mountain tops, for the 



164 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

little birds had fled, and the vultures followed the slayers. 
In Jerusalem the capital city, the most valiant leaders and 
footmen were gloomy, while the rest grieved over the de- 
privations ; the enemy having ofttimes come up to the very 
gates and exchanged bowshoots with the keepers of the 
wall, while others of them ravaged the market-gardens 
and destroyed, what they could not take away, of milk 
vegetables, honey, wine. 

Amid all this visitation, the wicked Israelites — not seem- 
ing to be true descendants of the patriarchs — still remain- 
ed determined not to recognize the hand of heaven. In 
the streets, in the houses and inmost rooms, the rich people 
had their idols of plated gold bedecked with precious 
stones and chains of silver ; the poorer had theirs of 
common blacksmiths' make in iron or sheeted with tin 
and lead ; the poorest of all knelt on their house-tops 
to worship the queen of heaven or other gods in the 
sun, moon, or stars. Altars of brick, stone and metal 
smoked daily with offerings to foreign gods, who were 
totally unable to bring on a calamity and yet were implored 
to remove the effects of the people's own misdeeds. In 
the valley of Tophet, there were wretches who did not 
hesitate to give children to the image of Moloch, drowning 
their screams of pain by drumming and shouting. 

This was under the eyes of the Holy City and its Tem- 
ple of the Lord. But it had become the refuge to cowards 
and robbers from all over the country, who rioted there with 
their bloody gains. The sons and daughters of the unjust 
judges who enriched themselves during the misery of the 
land, paraded the street with great sumptuousness. They 
tinkled their golden leglets, armlets and necklaces to re- 
ceive the shouts of servile throngs, smiled scornfully when 
widows of men slain in the open country by their pillagers, 
begged of them, and tossed their diademed heads at the 



HEZ I AH 165 

sight of the soldiers, dusty and smelling of the camp, who 
came to the chief city from other towns to keep the roads 
a little open by the escorting of royal messengers and news 
from members of separated families. 

The study of such scenes was forced upon the boy- 
prince's mind, and he profited by it. Scarcely had his fath 
er died and he ascended the throne in his turn than he pro- 
ceeded to undo all that King Ahaz had done in the way of 
evil. 

In the first month of his succession, he had the great 
gates opened of the Temple and gold plates put on instead 
of the ones removed to be given to the Assyrian as ransom. 
He had the images, high and low, of rich and poor, pulled 
down and ground to pieces, the trees which had been 
worshipped were cut up for firewood, he broke in bits the 
brazen serpent of Moses because it was worshipped as no 
figure, though handled once by a great prophet, deserved 
in the least to be as a mere savior (which it was not, ex- 
cept by grace) in itself ; he replaced as far as it was possible 
the injury done to sacred vessels of the house of prayer, 
collected the members of the priesthood from all over 
his realm and reinstated them. 

The temple being made fit once more for the true religion, 
King Hezekiah sent letters to all the tribes of Israel near 
him for them to appear at Jerusalem, and many did come to 
join with all of the great city in a celebration of the pass- 
over. Thousands of cattle were offered up on this occasion 
of a whole nation begging mercy, and the like had never 
been seen since Solomon had dedicated the holy house. 

Thus having his subject, daring once again, only afraid of - 
the Lord whom they had offended, and whose just anger 
they had essayed to propitiate, King Hezekiah showed him- 
self as bold in the right as his sires had been timorous while 
wrong. He despatched an embassy to Nineveh, to tell the 



166 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

King of Assyria that he must not expect that the new moii« 
arch of Judah, was, though a youth, made of yielding stuff, 
but would find that the boy-king was resolved to pay the 
yearly tribute no longer. To give the army he was raising 
exercise in the field, they were marched against the Philis- 
tines whose lands they entered up to the city of Gaza, which 
they assaulted and very nearly mastered. 

For more than ten years all went wonderfully well with 
the Israelites, so long as they renewed the ancient but ever 
young faith, but happiness and quiet dulled their exertions. 
Their brethren being overcome in Samaria by the Assj'ri- 
ans did not prove severe enough lesson to them. Heze- 
kiah had continued to set an example, than which there 
could be none better ; all the good that could be done, he 
did with all his heart. 

Not to punish him, therefore, but as a judgement on the 
people, beginning to relax and retreat from the solemn 
vow to the Lord which they had taken thirteen years be- 
fore, Sennacherib King of Assyria, was let invade Judah, 
and made himself master of many of the principal towns 
with a suddenness and with a force which prevented Heze- 
kiah defending them or even hoping to relieve them by 
dint of arms. But it was painful to his kind heart io hear 
the complaints of the surrendered Hebrews, who feared 
that they would be expatriated like their brothers of Sam- 
aria, and he announced to Sennacherib that he would pay 
him tribute. This ransom was fixed as high as thirty tal- 
ents of gold and three hundred of silver. 

To pay such a sum, King Hezekiah not only had to give 
up all the contents of his royal treasury, but reverently bor- 
row from the house of the Lord. No one was displeased, 
for all believed that the warrior-robber, being thus bought 
off, would leave the kingdom with only those enemies to 
contend against that it could resist and defeat with ease. 



HEZEKIAH. 167 

But Shebna the royal treasurer, who was a foreigner and 
a traitor, who had cunningly taken of the money placed in 
his charge, and who feared that his thefts might be discov- 
ered at any moment, wrote secretly to the Assyrian sover- 
eign and, for pay which enabled him to cover his faults and 
continue his extravagances, he transmitted intelligence of 
the state of the kingdom. Sennacherib, willing to break 
his faith with a power he considered greatly beneath him, 
lent an open ear to the reports of the weakness of Heze- 
kiah in his people's love, riches and warlike feeling. 

To the surprise of all the Hebrews, who relied upon the 
Assyrian keeping his pledge, the latter, at the head of an 
immense force made a second invasion of Judah, and the 
first news of his breaking of troth was accompanied with 
the further tidings that he had captured two or three strong- 
holds already. 

King Hezekiah, recovering from the unexpected shock, 
determined to attempt not again to secure an unsteady 
peace by money, but essay arms against arms. Word went 
out from the capitol all over to the places on every side, to 
call in the out-lying forces. They were falling back, as it 
was, before the strong scouting parties of light armed Per- 
sians who covered Sennacherib their commander's advance, 
taking care to strip the deserted country of all the flying 
villagers had been unable to carry off. So innumerously 
did the armed men begin to flock in, that the great city in 
both of its parts, upper and lower, buzzed and grew ani- 
mated as a hive. The towers along the walls were filled 
with the guards assigned to posts, who rapidly filed into 
their positions. In places, too, on the broad top of the 
thick enclosure, numbers of soldiers were engaged in 
mounting huge engines, catapults, balistas, and unnamed 
machines for hurling great rocks and whole flights of darts 
at one time. Over the temple on the higher towers of 



168 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

Ophel, the watchmen relieved one another at short inter- 
vals to insure the utmost freshness of search. 

The city had been full of tumult and sound before on 
different occasions, but the excitement and noise of the 
present was never surpassed. The people, having no busi- 
ness to be carried on except that connected with the mili- 
tary, for the blacksmiths' plied their pincers, hammers, bel- 
lows and grindstones most actively in preparing weapons 
and mail — except a few very much alarmed females, who 
preferred to peer through the lattice of the windows into 
the streets when they did command such a view, to see the 
troops go by, blackened the roof-tops, and bent their earn- 
est gaze on the plain, on the outworks and on the squares 
where the warriors were being detailed for duty. 

To -annoy the foe as much as possible in case he should 
attempt a siege, a couple of large detachments went up be- 
hind the city and diverted the stream from the spring of 
Gihon which filled the upper reservoir, and turned Shiloh's 
rill and Siloam's shaded pool towards the walls so as to run 
into the great ditch between the two defensive lines and 
turn its deep trench into a miniature river. They did all 
the damage they could to all other sources of supply around 
the place as well on the hills as on the plain. To mend the 
great wall in places where it had been suffered to be 
breached, to permit entrances by which time was saved, 
houses near by were purchased out of the city money and 
their material used for the repairs. 

Night came to the city thus. 

A night of all but repose, silence and darkness. The 
furnace lights gleamed out of the armorers', where a click- 
ing of sledges on metal breast-plates and weapons resounded, 
the sentries on the lines of masonry exchanged the watch- 
words, steel flashed everywhere in the streets, on the heads 
and bodies of men and in their hands, and the open spaces 



HEZEKIAH. 169 

were crowded with vast concourses of people listening to the 
preaching of Isaiah the prophet and the inciting of King 
Hezekiah, who went the grand round of the outposts in 
person. The activity of all was heightened by seeing in 
the distance, about midnight, stars spring to life on the 
hills from afar off to the other end of the plain, forming a 
chain of glittering points. It was the route which signal- 
fires traveled to warn all, that the Assyrians were march- 
ing that way. 

During the morning hours men on swift camels and 
horses began to dash over the level ground and hurry to 
the king after admission at the gates, well barred and bar- 
ricaded. They were couriers with the intelligence of new 
victories by the foreign hosts, how they were in countless 
masses like locust swarms, how their spearheads in a body 
were like a sheet of remote lightning reflected on the sky, 
how their horses' hoofs cut up the roads and had to spread 
far each side of them in preserving their great front, how 
the wheels of their chariots, full of archers, made an uproar 
like a whirlwind at its height. They had their divisions 
in every direction and hardly anybody could escape their 
scouts. The Hebrews who had attempted to flee to Egypt 
had been cut off and all the treasure that they had loaded 
themselves down with, had been taken by their captors. 

These messengers, too, bore terrifying accounts of the 
components of the foe, the different nations whose quotas 
formed its myriads, and of the strange gods by which 
swore these treaders-down of cities, gods whose images 
they carried ever with them upreared on poles instead of 
banners, and whom they confidently spoke of placing in the 
Israelites' Lord's Temple in the city, the joy of the whole 
earth. They bore uncouth weapons : sickles on spear- 
poles by which they cut men in two, lances of great length 
and shields of the strangest shapes, metal bows with which, 
8 



170 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

so heavy were they, a man could be felled to the earth aa 
with a sword. 

The morning passed without a sign of the enemy, but 
fugitives continued to hasten in from the lonely country, 
their camel's hair tents on the backs of mules, with their 
children and treasures. Their haste and numbers increased 
every hour, until as the middle of the afternoon was 
reached, the fugitives then arriving assured the captain of 
the gate-guard that he had better send out spies or a small 
force to repel the skirmishers of the Assyrians whom they 
had seen in motion, but how strong they had not waited to 
ascertain. 

All over Jerusalem the sound of intense animation arose. 
The king, his chief men and priests exhorted the soldiers, 
tightening their belts and girding on their armor, to 
remember they were defending the homes of their kings, uf 
the glorious ark and Temple, and the honor of the One 
whose shrine was there set. The women, though some 
wept, crowded the roofs in spite of the heat of the sun, and 
their faces unveiled without their being censured now ( 
waved Godspeed to their fathers, husbands and brothers* 
The men at the gates shouted and clashed cymbals to their 
comrades who sallied out and crossed the plain. 

All eyes were strained to mark, through the fine, sun- 
baked sand, they themselves stirred up, and through the 
heated air that made them seem doubled as well as indis- 
tinct in wavy outline. At the very margin of the plain, at 
the beginning of the road coming down the hill-side, ap- 
peared a body of horsemen, and of racing chariots drawn by 
fleet horses three abreast. The two parties, Israelites and 
Assyrians (for such were the latter, a strong spy-party,) 
halted instinctively at so unexpected a meeting. 

But the Hebrew, no sooner seeing what a long train filled 
up the defile than divining that none of their scattered fu- 



HEZEKIAH. 171 

gitives could be those scarlet clothed riders with scarlet 
shields and strange weapons, doubled their front ranks and 
dashed on, under a cloud of their javelins which they hur- 
riedly darted. Entangled in the downward road of which 
the Hebrews walled up the end with their combattants, 
the Persians fell back and stopped their friends from ad- 
vancing. The assailants, securing the horses of the ad- 
vance who had been slain, wheeled round in obedience to 
their prudent leader's word and galloped at the top of their 
speed straight back to the city. The enenry were so inex- 
tricably confused that they did not begin to chase them 
until they were well out of shot. The Hebrews reached 
the gates, of which one wing was open for them, and 
passed in with their trophies. 

The Persians, in fury at having been so shamefully sur- 
prised, as soon as disengaged from the valley road, pricked 
up their fast horses and scattered over the plain in a head- 
long race. Some of their foremost flung a score of darts at 
the half-opening, and, though most of them bent their 
points or shivered to splinters against the just-closing gate, 
yet two of the missiles struck to death each its man. 

Now it happened that, such was the expanse of wall to 
be guarded, every avaliable men had been pressed in to the 
service, and, in some cases prisoners, immured for lesser 
crimes as of debt, were let join the troops. Among the 
party who had gone out and thus returned with the foe at 
their heels, were two brothers, who, though only lately 
confined for petty faults, were really very bad men, mur- 
derers and robbers, who had fled to Jerusalem from Lachish, 
confident that the state of the kingdom would prevent news 
of their doings being important enough to spread. These 
two were those who had been transfixed by the Persiau 
javelins. One died outright, the other writhed with a mor 



172 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

tal wound, but, after a farewell glance at his dead brother, 
he looked up to the sky over the glittering top of the Tem- 
ple, where fluttered the doves, sparrows and swallows, 
frighted from the noisy city to this tranquil spot, and ex- 
haled his last breath in these words : 

" Righteous art thou, Lord, and upright are thy judge- 
ments — more than upright, even too good, for I little de- 
serve so honorable a death as in fighting for thy Holy City." 

The enemy, foiled by the gates being shut in their faces, 
galloped along the wall and shot at the keepers. But these 
were fully prepared, and a shower of stories, darts and ar- 
rows whistled around them, pinned one or two to the 
leopard-skin saddles, reddened with blood their scarlet coats, 
and compelled them to retire under their shields beyond 
range. There they drew up on the plain, while the richly 
dressed among them, officers, began to examine the city's 
defenses from Ophel to the lower town.- This done without 
interruption, for they were so lightly armed and on such 
swift chargers that there was no body of men inside Je- 
rusalem able to have overtaken and punished them, they at 
length, at nightfall, drew off. 

Now that it seemed certain that an attack was going to 
be made by Sennacherib, soon after >this report of the con- 
dition of the city should be transmitted to him, the soldiers 
were more than ever on the alert, and the citizens of all 
ages and conditions were called upon to give some hours 
of their time to the completing of the repairs of the walls 
and the mounting of engines. Bat, in spite of the pious 
prompting of King Hezekiah, who set the example by tak- 
ing no rest himself, and of others, many of the richer peo- 
ple, following th* example of Shebna the traitorous treas- 
urer, laughed at the young king and the priests and con- 
tinued the feast, saying : 



HEZEKIAH. 173 

M More meat, more wine ! to-morrow the dreadful Assyrians 
will level the city with the dust. To-morrow we die, let us 
eat and be merry while we can !" 

They would not go out to work at the defenses or let 
their servants go. The common people, who were not so 
rebellious, murmured at this partiality and demanded of 
the king that he should evince his power. Hezekiah was 
too just not to consent, especially on learning besides that 
Shebna and his friends were arming their retainers and 
threatening to resist any of the king's troops who might 
be sent to arrest them for their sedition. But they quickly 
were cowed at the first showing of the king's rising to the 
level of the occasion and having them seized by such a 
large body of the guards that it would have been folly for 
them to resist. Shebna, changing face with the rapidity of 
the treacherous, so conducted himself that he was left at 
liberty. He determined to be revenged, however, for hav- 
ing so many of his followers disgraced. 

Nothing happened that night except that the signal-fires 
blazed in a long train once again to betoken that some por- 
tion or all of the Assyrian's myriads were in motion thither- 
ward. The dark hours passed amid the shouting of 
psalms and the exhortations of wakeful King Hazekiah and 
the priests. The clatter of pikes shifted from shoulder to 
shoulder, the rattle of arrows in quivers against the ivory 
backplates and targets, the clank in the forges, and the 
measured pace of the look-outs were intermingled with 
deep sentences floating on the air in fragments. 

H The Lord hath delivered them to the slaughter. — Give 
thanks to Him who smote great kings, and who redeemed 
us from our enemies, for His mercy endureth forever. — 
Blessed be the Lord our Fortress, our high Tower and De- 
liverer. — Deliver us from the hand of strangers. — The Lord 
preserveth all them that love Him.— I will avenge me of 



1T4 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

mine enemies, saith the Lord of Hosts. — The enemy shall 
not exact from him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him, 
and I will beat down his enemies before his face." 

After the previous visit nobody was astonished when, 
after a noise like a distant rushing wind, had swept over 
the plain, there appeared in sight a much larger force than 
that of the other day. Besides the scarlet riders seen then 
with their bundle of spears at their saddle-bows and bows 
and arrows at their backs, there were the gold-laced purple 
coats of Sennacherib's own guard, followed by other 
troops variously accoutred. The dust was made to rise to 
obscure their coming and prevent their main body and rear 
being accurately counted. 

They came on slowly, and their spears blazed over their 
glittering helms and coats and gently-rolling chariot wheels, 
in a sheet of points for some time under the gaze of the 
keepers of the city walls. But, several horsemen who 
spurred in advance of the array waved their mantles and 
shook green boughs instead of weapons in sign of peace.. 
They were let approach the gates therefore, these few who 
took the lead, and challenged through the little wicket 
opened for the parley. They said that Rabshakeh, a gen 
eral of Sennacherib's army was at the head of this great 
band, which was only an escort beseeming the great king's 
great captain, and that he demanded speech of King Heze- 
kiah. 

But the king would not confer with him in person and 
sent three messengers in his stead. One of these three 
was the false Shebna, who had intruded himself. They 
were let out and advanced some fifty feet from the gate, 
unarmed. Every archer on the towers of the gates held 
his arrows ready to cover them and punish treachery. 
The Assyrians did the same as Rabshakeh came forward 
to meet them, alone, for he was too much of a soldier to 



HEZEKIAH. 175 

fear to encounter the three, who were not only of some age 
but peaceful-looking. The customary greetings were ex- 
changed equally haughtily on either side. 

" Bear these words to King Hezekiah," said Rabshakeh ; 
" Sennacherib the war-axe of Nineveh, ■ daughter of troops', 
who has overrun this land, and taken all the frontier towns 
and now is on the eve of possessing himself of Lachish, 
would know on what terms King Hezekiah will treat with 
him and ransom the captured towns and their people ?" 

Eliakim, the son of the high steward of the royal house- 
hold, one of the three, answered : " But your master al- 
ready has broken one bond of faith, will he be satisfied 
with another taste of spoil ? No, we are only prepared to 
give him war." 

11 War ? war ?" repeated the Assyrian scornfully, " what 
can you trust to that you speak so loftily. To Egypt ? A 
fig ! 'tis but a bending reed, which, breaking under your 
weight, will wound you with its splinters — such is that 
Pharaoh. Do you trust to your armament? Tush ! you 
are but hares to the warriors of Sennacherib, and in num- 
bers even we can eat you up, like caterpillars a leaf, or the 
black men's ants a cedar's trunk. I am but one of my lord's 
captains, but I can show you two thousand horses capari- 
soned for war, of my own self — think of my captain's power, 
then! Will you trust to your God? Folly, I tell you. 
Sennacherib of Nineveh has overcome people who had 
richer gods than he your Hezekiah sets up for you, and 
their images have been flung by Assyrian hands into their 
own altar fires." 

"But they were mere images," said Eliakim ; " our God 
is not the work of men's hands, but is the Maker of things 
overpoweringly impossible to mankind, the world, the stars 
above it." 



176 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

" Enough," said Rabshakeh, " you speak like your boyish 
king." 

" I speak like all within Jerusalem," replied Eliakim, 
" from king to beggar at the gate, who limps about to col- 
lect stones for the slingers with his crippled hands, and 
changes his whine for alms into the prayer : " God save 
our king, our country and ourselves, that all may know ihou 
art alone a true God." 

*' So talk a few of you," said the Assyrian, raising his 
voice, for he noticed that the men on the wall were crowd- 
ing nearer the gates to try to hear the conference, which 
was in Hebrew. " But all cannot be so foolish as to wish 
to be besieged, should the place not be taken by storm, and 
perish of famine and thirst on account of your petty ob- 
stinacy." 

" Sir," said Eliakim, " I pray you speak less loudly, or, if 
you must so do, let your words be in Chaldee, for we un- 
derstand that tongue." 

" Yes," said the third envoy, " they hear us on the wall." 

"Nay, nay," interrupted Shebna, exchanging a sign with 
the Assyrian to proceed, " we are not afraid if all within 
the city hear." 

" My master did not send me only to speak with you, 
sirs," said Rabshakeh at the highest pitch of his voice, 
" but the same to the men, nobles, or the gallant common 
soldier to whom already his crust is begrudged." 

And encouraged by Shebna's secret signs, the Assyrian 
pursued in a loud tone, and directing his speech to the 
masses thronging the outworks : 

" Hear ye, hear ye, what Sennacherib the conqueror, 
says to you. Let not King Hezekiah deceive you, he can- 
not deliver you, any more than the God he has set up has 
power to do. No. The King of Assyria is merciful as 



HEZEKIAH. 1*1*1 

mighty, and he sa} r s he will pardon all rebels who lay 
down their arms, and pay him a light tribute merely in 
form, besides promising them their lands uninterrupted, 
until he shall send for you to come to a better than your 
own, one of plentiful corn, and wine and honey." 

And giving orders, which had undoubtedly been expect- 
ed, a number of horsemen galloped to right and left along 
the walls and, while some attracted with trumpets an aud- 
ience to the point before which they drew rein and cried 
out their captain's words, others shot arrows high in air 
to fall harmlessly inside ; they had rolled papyrus manu- 
script containing this amnesty proclamation of Sennach- 
erib instead of their removed steel heads. 

Bat King Hezekiah had most of these latter picked up 
and destroyed, while he made speeches to the guard of the 
defences, who did not answer a word to the Assyrians' 
attempt to buy them from their allegiance. And the answer 
to Rabshakeh was for him and his master to go on to do 
their worst, they would only find men defending their city, 
their king and the Temple. With this the Assyrian envoy 
departed and left the place to comparative peace. 

Meanwhile Sennacherib, though he had heard a rumor 
that the King of Ethiopia, had proclaimed war against him, 
raised the seige of Lachish and, moving nearer Jerusalem, 
began to throw up works against Libnah, where Rabshakeh 
returned to him. Thence the king wrote letters to Heze- 
kiah, in which he threatened him and derided the God of 
the Israelites whom he set in his estimation even below the 
idols of various places which he had reduced. 

Isaiah the prophet encouraged the king and the people, 

and foretold that the King of Assyria, however likely such 

an act was, would never appear before Jerusalem in force 

to throw up a single line of intrenchments, or shoot an 

8* 



178 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

arrow, or rear an engine, much less harm it or its guar- 
dians. 

Shebna, continuing his traitorous plotting, was deposed 
from his office, and, some years afterwards, received his 
punishment in being made a captive to one who scorned 
the riches which his underhanded dealings had gained for 
him, and treated him like any poor Jew. 

Such had been the activity shown by King Hezekiah ; 
he had reviewed his troops, studied plans of defence, 
settled mooted points, spent nights in prayer and at work, 
that he felt sick and lay almost' at the point of death. His 
illness and dread of passing from life at that momentous 
time was heightened by the alarming picture which his fe- 
vered fancy drew of the distraction of his realm, for he had 
no heir and its division would be ruin. He had had great 
peace until now, when all was bitterness. In the midst of 
his weeping, for his misery and pain drew tears from his 
valiant heart that wished to be up and doing, the Prophet 
Isaiah cheered him with the saying that his prayers would 
be answered and asked him if he wished proof direct from 
heaven. 

" To prove, oh, king, that, not only will the Lord — 
blessed be His name — rescue you from death, but your 
people from destruction, this will be done ; a feat akin to 
the favor of Joshua. The sun," said Isaiah, as he pointed 
through the open window of the garden, beside which Heze- 
kiah was reclining, at the great sun dial with its tall needle 
in the centre of marble slabs which the former king Ahaz 
had made, " the sun —as you see — stands so. Behold — the 
shadow returns — see, see !" 

Indeed, the great flaming disc retraced its road, sensibly 
moving, and on the dial's table the shadow of the mark 
moved, not three, not five, but ten degrees in an instant. 



HEZEKIAH. 1^9 

The sun, from being above the horizon a considerable dis- 
tance, had rapidly rolled on to its rest, and sunk out of 
sight ! 

No sooner was Hezekiah healed than he had a statement 
of his cure placed in the public places for all, who had 
seen the miracle, to read and to see his thanks. It is to be 
believed that the people were more confident now against 
Sennacherib's prowess. Still the latter had not appeared 
before the city, and scouts could not find him or his ad- 
vance. 

While they were thus in Jerusalem afraid to credit what 
they had to believe that God needed none of their feeble 
assistance to show His might against Sennacherib the terror 
to men, while they were passing the night in wakefulness 
fearing that any moment the signal fires would stream up on 
the high lands, kindled by friends, another scene more awful- 
ly grand than the Holy City presented with all the running 
to and fro with weapons unsheathed, was transpiring in the 
Assyrian camp at Nob. 

Sennacherib's host was composed of a mixture of the many 
nations he had subdued and of such bands of adventurers 
as had flocked to so warlike a monarch's standard, for the 
sake of the plunder which was to be expected in his ruth- 
less invasions and for fear of the consequences of crimes 
and bloodshed which they had committed and from whose 
consequences he alone of men could protect them. 

Each division was in its own village of camps : some in 
tents, some in rude houses that they had hastily made of 
boughs. Here the gigantic Sabeans, huge axe at hand, slept 
at the right of the royal guards, whose common soldiers 
gloried in the richest purple and gold ; there the Syrians 
glittered in the slight motion of breathing with their silver 
scaled coats. The swarthy Egyptians with their bundles 
of reed javelins as long as a man but, scarcely heavier 



180 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

than an ostrich's feather, slumbered in advance of the jet 
Ethiopians, in whose black and large ears gleamed massy 
ear-rings melted from pillaged gold, and beside whose arms 
were various weapons, spiked clubs, maces, hatchets and 
envenomed spears. The sacred cohort of the relations of 
the priests of Nisroch, god of Nineveh, were enrobed in 
white over brass chain mail and wore white plumes in 
their brazen helmets polished like gold. The Persians, clad 
in scarlet, in which colors their horses were bedecked, kept 
the outposts to the right, a place of honor confided to them 
for their late excellence shown in scouring the wretched 
Land of Judah. So all the swarms, like bees suffocated with 
smoke, had sank to rest. 

By degrees, despite their efforts, the sentinels yielded to 
the invincible feeling creeping over them and fell asleep, 
this one leaning against the captain's tent, this against a 
machine for hurling rocks, that on his lance', that sitting on 
a stone, his head bowed on his hands and them clasped on 
his sword-hilt. 

So all were asleep, all from the royal commander to the 
meanest camp-followers, from the captains to the soldiers, 
all slept. The horses, camels and cattle captured were sub- 
dued by the same invisible force. 

The sleep was deep beyond expression. 

The waking was to be awful. 

The night was calm, not a cloud had obscured the setting 
sun, and all the stars were out and studding the sky which 
the moon brightly silvered. That aught should befal those 
two hundred thousand and more of irresistible warriors 
seemed, and perhaps was, impossible to man. To Him, to 
whom nothing is beyond His power, what was to come 
was a simple thing. # 

As suddenly as noiselessly, long horse's-tails of clouds ; 
ominously white in the moon's rays, began to skim over 



HEZEKIAH. 181 

the azure dome, like so many scraps of veils gradually 
united. The moon and stars faded and faded till, after 
having barely penetrated with wan and ghastly beams the 
thickening shroud, they disappeared altogether behind the 
thickly accumulated vapor. Only one star was left unob- 
scured ! it was Lucifer, away down on the horizon from 
whence the pall had been drawn ; it appeared as if it 
Btood for the fallen angel whose name it bore, and was 
made in punishment to behold a new condemnation of 
pride only less severe than the fallen prince's own. It 
made the darkened scene all the more impressive to behold 
that one point irradiating over one little quarter of the im- 
mense ebony vault. 

Amid the gloom, faintly to be discerned, a fleecy line of 
cloud seemingly descended to the earth, rolled on swiftly 
over the plain like thistle-down in a tempest's fore-running 
blasts. This flying miasma, heavy enough to keep only a 
few feet from the ground, which shrunk from its approach, 
and seemed to seek to swallow its sweet little plants from 
the evil, had no sooner reached the camps than it began to 
widen its wings and envelope all the thousands in its im- 
palpable but forcible folds. 

It seemed a signal. 

At that moment, while a soughing of chained winds 
above responded to a growling of another spirit of de- 
struction entombed beneath the earth, a ball of fire, leaving 
a path of sparks, dropped straight from the densest mass of 
the inky cumuli above, and, after its descent of miles ac- 
complished in an instant, struck the gilt crown over the 
tent-pole's tops of King Sennacherib. The crash that burst 
forth far overhead, rent the clouds to display a vast sheet 
of fire these stored up, and rolled frpm one confine of the 
celestial cupola to the other. This leading thunderbolt 
exploded when it touched the thing of earth and scattered 



182 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

its fragments far and wide. A thousand thunderbolts 
darted downwards from all points, aslant, straight and ser- 
1 pentine. A myriad of meteors, red as blood, yellow as 
i gold, white as a corpse, green as grass, rained from the 
bursting bosoms of overladen clouds. A wind careered 
from east and west, from north and south, blowing scorch* 
ing hot and freezing cold at the same breath, towards the 
doomed encampment, tossed high in air the tents unfired 
by the shower of stars, and tore down everything ere 
shredding them to tiny pieces. The earth, shaking with 
terror at the flood of horrors dancing terribly upon its 
agonized surface and falling unfailingly, opened its mouth 
to emit its groans and screams of blue and pale yellow va- 
por, which kindled by the fiery aeolites, blazed up and 
formed of the chasms bottomless pits of hellish flames. 

That silent agent who had enwrapped the slumbering 
armies in its snowy garment had stifled uninnumerable of 
the mighty. More of the valiant before awakened were dead 
with the lightning-strokes, most mercifully for their., for the 
cloth under their armor, kindled by the subtle fluid burnt 
on slowly and sent its dull blaze and low smoke through the 
plates and scales to tarnish its outer gloss, Merciful indeed 
was the Avenger to these in slaying them without delay, 
though their inanimate bodies thus consumed. Their fate 
was happy compared to that of the wretches who h'ke Sen- 
nacherib, had neither been smothered nor struck to the 
earth. 

These awoke, their eyes dazzled with the multitudinous 
arrows of heaven darting down and around, their ears dead- 
ened with the roar above the explosions about and the crash 
beneath. They were nearly paralyzed with fear and they 
could hardly stand with their trembling limbs on the quiv- 
ering ground. Confused in mind, benumbed in body, they 
staggered this way and that like a tarrier late at the 



HEZEKIAH. 183 

wine-ctip, seeking shelter with groping arms and studied 
step. But they stumbled by scores over the heaps of their 
late companions in battle, who lay as still now as their weap- 
ons and, like them, illumined, not with the soul, but with 
the lingering lightning and sulphurous tongues that stream- 
ed from the flammivomous earth, that played on the dead 
flesh and over the steel. 

The most active man was as helpless as his arrows, tar- 
nished ia barb, burnt in shaft and scorched in feather ; the 
strongest was past lifting his blackened axe with splintered 
helve ; the charioteer was entombed beneath a ruin of the 
melted fragments of wheels and car and the dismembered 
carcasses, bleeding with smoky blood, and roasting offen- 
sively, of the late splendid steeds ; tents were tinder veils 
over whole suffocated decemvirates. 

The few survivors sought to flee from under the canopy 
of never ceasing deaths, over a field of endless dead. It 
was uneven hideously, for its mountains were of corpses, 
its rivers of flames, its chasms graves, its pathways ob- 
structed with the lifeless, whose heaped up companions 
were the hedges, from which, drained inflamed blood. The 
wretched fugitives, those who escaped falling into the sud- 
denly-yawning jaws made by the earthquake, or being sti- 
fled with poisonous vapors, or being kindled into living 
candles by fiery gasses which surrounded some and were 
kindled by the glancing zigzags, or being mercifully slain 
by weighty masses of ignited stones dropping from sky- 
ward, these saved ones no sooner crossed the borders of 
'the visited camp than, tired and horrified as they were, 
they fled with swiftest step from one another, from the 
scene of desolation. 

They were spared to spread the tidings of how the Un- 
equalled had deigned to war against his feeble creation, 
but they hurried on unbelieving in such relief. Did they 



184 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

glance over their shoulders, heaving with their quick caught 
breath they beheld God's banner in the sky, above his le- 
gions of angels, soaring over or descending upon the en- 
campment. A field of sable overhead checkered and stri- 
ped with network of fire ; a field of smoke beneath pierced 
with gulfs in combustion and embroidered with circling and 
crossing torches that were deadly in their lambent sports. 
So on they rushed, the wind following them with chance 
stars on its wings, a stray globule of glowing gas, an eye of 
incandescence, a ball of blue and green, a dart of dazzling 
brilliancy, a train of sparks. These were transformed by 
their alarmed sight into phantasms the most horrific. They 
thought they were hunted down by spectre riders, on fan- 
tastic ghosts of steeds, spirits swept along down on them, 
brandishing flaming swords, visionary flights of arrows 
winged their way from terrible bows that unseen archers 
bent. 

Morning's light alone brought them calm, and they sunk 
into the rest their fatigue demanded to sleep unbroken but 
preys to dreadful dreams. 

Meanwhile, the garrison within Jerusalem, tired at being 
cooped up with no foe in sight at whom to deal a blow, 
had loudly begged to be led out to search for the antagonist 
who had sworn to meet them. But, until now Isaiah the 
Prophet had counselled King Hezekiah not so to do. At 
last, he had said that they might tranquilly proceed, and 
solemnly added that their arms, brightly burnished, would 
return stainless of the foemen who had set themselves up 
against the heavens. 

That same dawn they were near the encampment at Nob 
where the latest reports had truthfully placed the Assyr- 
ians. 

There the Hebrews began to form for the attack and 
they marched on in the ancient order. It was a grand 



HEZEKIAH. 185 

sight, to see them, resolute and confident, about to engage 
a force many times more powerful, and responding with 
loud voice to the singing of the priests. These latter had 
blown their silver trumpets and then chanted: 

" A thousand shall fall at your left side and ten thousand 
at your right hand. But I will give peace to this land, and 
the sword shall not go through it. Ye shall chase your en- 
emies, and they shall die before you. A hundred of you 
shall put ten thousand to flight." 

And the army entoned, slashing their weapons against 
their shields and breastplates : 

" If we walk in thy statutes, oh, glorious Lord ! If we 
keep thy commandments, oh, G-od of our fathers !" 

If they felt all trust in heaven at that moment when they 
seemed soon to be at sword's point with the enemy, how 
deep was their thankfulness when their advance, uninter- 
rupted to their surprise, brought them into view of the 
vast encampment abandoned by the two hundred thousand 
soldiers, who were never to fight again, never to spread 
terror and devastation. 

An immense spoil awaited the Hebrews there, and the 
king was repaid a hundred-fold for the tribute which he 
had had to sacrifice to Sennacherib's rapacity. Once again 
was the Temple of the miracle-working God decorated as 
it deserved, as once again peace was on the land. The As- 
syrian king had been murdered by his own sons while 
giving thanks to Nisroch the Nineveh god for his escape 
from the battle-field, and he left no successor of his own 
stamp to alarm the children of Israel. The city, all agita- 
tion from the expected storm, became the most quiet of 
habitations. 

King Hezekiah the Good thenceforth spent his life in un- 
broken prosperity. His happy people, under so just a 
monarch, increased their flocks and herds. The wilderness 



186 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

was made to blossom like a garden of roses, and houses 
sprang up in the stead of the ones ruined by the armies. 
And when he died, few were the sons of David who had 
been so bewailed and so magnificently sepulchred. 



ELIJAH. 131 



ELIJAH. 



It was in the wicked King Ahab's time, that a man of 
Gilead, named Elijah, was chosen to receive holy intelligence 
because he had sought goodness and justice with his whole 
heart and been ever guided by the commandments and by 
the fear of the Lord. All Samaria that were still righteous, 
shuddered at King Ahab's black acts of impiety, but they 
dared not say one word against the erection of altars and 
idols of Baal. Ahab had even married a daughter of a 
heathen monarch, to whose religion he subscribed. 

It was one day on which the royal family were returning 
to the palace, that Elijah interrupted the procession and de- 
nounced the king for his crimes against God and man, and 
foretold the drouth which was to punish the realm. The 
furious Ahab would have had him cut to pieces as he spoke, 
but he lost himself in the crowd bej'ond the soldiers' search 
and hid himself. He was hunted after so closely that he ven- 
tured to stay no longer in the town but fled by night to a 
cave by the brook of Cherith, a feeder of the Jordan. He had 
its water to drink, and hence thirst had no terrors for him. 
But, as he dared not let himself be seen by any man, he had 
to content himself for some time on berries and even edible 
bark of trees. These failed him and to the last and only 
Supporter, he prayed. Ravens took from the town small 



188 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

loaves of bread and pieces of meat, and carried them all 
the long way to unloosen them from "their talons at the 
prophet's feet. So he lived, by providential means. 

But the dryness he had foretold was now afflicting Sama- 
ria, and Cherith, from no rain, no dew supplying its source 
grew lower and lower each day, till the stones in its baked 
channel, were clean from moisture. Elijah crossed the 
country into Sidonia. 

He was wearily approaching the gates of Zarephath, when 
he met a poor woman who was gathering firewood from 
the brush. Tired out, he sat down near her and asked her 
to bring him a little water to drink. She willingly consent- 
ed, saying that she lived just within the gates, and would 
not be long gone, and had lifted up her bundle of wood to 
carry it, when the wayfarer added : 

" And I pray you, kind woman, to bring me a bit of bread 
the least bit, in your hand." 

" Oh, sir, you ask almost too much there," returned she g 
" truly, I have nothing baked in my whole house in the waj 
of cake or bread. I am gathering these few sticks now ta 
cook a little meal and a little oil for my son, who is ill and 
out of work, and myself. Heaven knows where our next 
meal will come from. I suppose we will have to lie down 
and die like other poor people after this." 

« My good woman," said Elijah, ''don't speak so despairing- 
ly for, as one of my wisest kings said of old : • to him that 
is of the living there is hope.' No, go and do as you say 
but make me a little cake first and afterwards attend to your- 
self and your boy." 

* Sir," said she, more narrowly watching him, " you are 
not of many years, but you are so sweet of voice and gentle- 
mannered, that I will obey. I will not keep you waiting if 
you still will tarry here. Why not enter the city— you have 



ELIJAH. 189 

surely had sufficient rest for these few steps. My house is 
humble, none more so, but please to honor it, good sir." 

Then the stranger had entered the lowly cottage and had 
eaten the portion of the fare, he said : 

" You have cast your bread upon the waters, and will find 
it before many days. Your barrel of meal shall not waste, 
nor shall your bottle of oil fail until the Lord sendeth rain 
upon the earth." 

In that house, Elijah stayed, and the scanty provision did 
not seem reduced at all, though another was added to the 
consumers. • Meanwhile the son of the generous woman, 
who was a widow, had far from recovered from his wasting 
illness, but, on the contrary, approached nearer and nearer 
to death until the spirit faintly animating his emaciated 
frame seemed but the shadow of a soul. The poor grieving 
mother had had many opportunities to judge what kind 
of a man was her guest, who spent more time at his devo- 
tions than at anything else. 

" Ah, man of God," moaned she, "is it by sheltering you 
that I have brought this evil on me ? Oh, sir, sir, are you 
come to punish me and slay my poor son?" 

But Elijah smiled sorrowfully, and only said : 
, " Let me have the youth." 

He carried the sick one up into the upper room, where he 
lodged and, there placing him on his bed, he prayed long 
and earnestly. 

" Oh, God, not for my little sake, but to prosper her who 
has sheltered me in thy honored name, may it be thy blessed 
will that the fleeting soul of this poor boy may rest and re- 
turn." 

The respectful supplication was listened to, and, from that 
day, the spirit coming again to the afflicted one he grew 
gradually better and could give thanks ere long for his re- 
covery. The mother poured out her gratitude to the proph* 



190 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

et and was only too deeply convinced of his being commis- 
sioned by a greater than earthly power. Many days pass- 
ed. The famine was very severe both in Samaria and the 
borders. It was at the height, when starving people begged 
for quick death, that Elijah left the widow's house with 
many blessings on her son, and turned his steps into his 
native land. He sought audience of King Ahab, against the 
wishes of his friends, who feared that he would be killed 
for the royal resentment had not died away by lapse of 
time. 

At the meeting of the sovereign and the prophet it seem- 
ed as if those who had cautioned the latter were right, for 
Ahab said fiercely : 

" Ha ! so thou rt the dog who troublest Israel ?" 

" No, my lord, I am but a man. I do not trouble nor have 
I troubled my dear country. Nor have I spoken against it 
for ought that its unconscious earth has done. But heaven 
has made me cry out against wrong-doing, even when it 
comes from you and your royal house, King Ahab. You 
have deserted the proper path and tread with sinning steps 
that broad road which leads to the idols and iniquity. I told 
you, a long while since, that you and your realm would be 
visited by a failure of crops and a famine. Was that not a 
sufficient proof? But the Lord has vouchsafed another 
evidence that he is alone in His might." 

" Let it be a sufficient one," said Ahab relenting, for he 
had found amid the sufferings which the royal household 
had had to endure from the drouth, that his richest presents 
had little affected his idols. 

" Send out word and collect all Israel around Mount Car- 
mel. Let then those so-called prophets of Baal and the 
flamens of the sacred groves, by whom your Queen Jezabel 
sets such great store, there confront me." 

No harm was done to Elijah. The false ministers of tho 



ELIJAH 191 

image-worship did not dare do anything of themselves, for 
the bulk of the people, only too plainly convinced by his 
prophecy having been fulfilled in their own time and to 
their own pain, could not be made to disbelieve his holy 
mission. 

In a week the tents of such people as could leave home 
were pitched on the plain around the eminence. The priests 
to the number of eight hundred and fifty were present and 
eager for the public test. They conceived that their united 
intellects would surely find some ingenious escape for them 
from any trial which the peasant Elijah's one untaught mind 
could devise. As the accuser, the latter was given the 
first hearing. He stood up on the height before the innumer- 
able audience. 

" My countr} 7 men, my friends, my brothers," said he, in a 
feeling voice which was loud enough to reach the edge of 
the assemblage, " how long will you halt between two opin- 
ions ? If you believe that the Lord God whose goodness to 
Moses, Abraham, Israel and our fathers, is the One, follow 
Him. If you rather choose Baal, a new god who is of a few 
years, a mere child of power, if he had any, or was, follow 
him. lam come to give you a last choice." 

No one answered a word. 

" You think, perad venture, that my Lord is but a weak 
One, because here I stand single-handed against these nine 
hundred. To me as prophet are four hundred and fifty, to 
me as follower of a true God are four hundred and over 
besides. But I challenge this god of human make, I the 
man of the people, who am alone against the hundreds of 
rich and noble. 

" Listen. Let two bullocks be brought here. Let these 
priests choose one, which they will slaughter and dress 
and place for sacrifice on the altar. But put no fire under- 
neath. Then will I take the other animal and prepare him, 



192 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

and I will not approach it with fire. Let us call severally 
on our gods, they on their many, I on my One, and the God 
who can answer with flame, is a God. Do I speak well !" 

From all the wide expanse of collected people arose an 
unanimous shout : 

" Elijah of Gilead, you speak well." 

The priests agreed. 

They selected a bullock, slew it with all the ceremonies, 
and placed it on the pile of wood on the altar, but were too 
carefully watched for them to have played a stratagem and 
slily kindled their pile. Then they began to implore their 
gods ; but in vain, of course, were all their wild dances, 
chants and prayers. All remained as ever up to noonday. 
The people, even the credulous, undeceived now, began to 
hoot and cry out against them and even mock the image 
to whom they had bowed down the past years. 

" Louder ! louder !" said the lookers-on, " awake your 
sleeping god ! call him back for maybe he is on hi3 trav- 
els I" 

After noon, the priests became furious and they re- 
doubled their incantations, dancing frantically, and cutting 
themselves till they bled, with knives and points of copper 
and steel. But the light of the descending sun alone fell 
on the meat. By this time, no one regarded them except to 
laugh at them and mock. 

Then Elijah called out : 

" Come nearer and lend me help, for the shades of night 
will surprise me, if I try to do all alone." 

They approached almost gladly. 

" This spot," continued he, " was once the site of an 
altar to the Lord." 

" Yes," said twenty voices ; " there are the stones yet 
at the corner of the vineyard wall. Hilod of Bithron used 
them to build with." 



ELIJAH. 193 

" Thanks, my friends. Who will help bring them here, 
where I stand," added the prophet, who had descended to 
the plain and halted at a spot commanded by the seat made 
for King Ahab and his wife, which latter had departed on 
seeing the failure of her friends the priests. 

A hundred arms detached the rows and piles of stones 
and carried them to the place designated, where Elijah 
quickly reared the altar. Of twelve stones he formed it, 
one for each tribe. He set those who had sharp sticks and 
others who found implements, to digging a wide trench 
around the altar. In the meanwhile he had built the fire, 
and reverently laid upon it the offering of fresh meat. 

" There are some dozen vats of the vineyard yonder," said 
he, " whoever owns them will lend them to the service of 
heaven. Take them, some of you, and bring them here 
full of water from the spring." 

The huge vessels brim-full, were carried to the altar in 
wonder. 

" Four four of them on this pile," said Elijah to the amaze- 
ment of all, king, priests and populace. 

A number of eager hands lifted up the tubs and deluged 
with the fourfold stream the altar and its burden. 

" Again, and again," said the prophet. 

The water not only glistened on the quarters of the 
bullock, but soaked the firewood and ran down the fresh- 
built altar in such plenty as to damp the earth and fill up 
the trench. The eyes of all stared in mute amazement on 
the dripping pyre which was far from seeming unfathoma- 
ble. They viewed the prophet in wonder, and the priests 
watched him with pity for his madness and joy that at 
least he would fail more completely than they. Through 
all he preserved his countenance unmoved, placid and 
smiling quietly. 

At length all retired. It was light yet, and the sun's 
9 



194 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

rays slanted over the multitude, on the altars and on the 
King and priests. Elijah had knelt, and those near enough 
to him, heard him say confidently : 

" Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, may it be thy 
pleasure that this day it shall be shown that thou art God 
in Israel as over all the world, through me the very least 
of thy marvellous creations. Show, also, in thy gracious- 
ness, that I am not too lowly to be reckoned as one of thy 
servants, and that I have power to do these things purely 
and simply by thy favor. Hear me, hear me, good, my 
Lord, and let this people, descendants of the blessed, see 
that thou art the Almighty and the Only God." • 

Was it that a passing sunbeam had met a sister on the 
drenched altar of twelve stones, and thus doubled its 
light? Could it, could it be that fire, from where except 
heaven, was bursting out all over that saturated table ? 
Beyond a doubt, increasing every instant, a sheet of flame 
had sprung into existence there, and, after licking up the 
drops in the sand, and drinking the water in the channel 
encircling all, was now enkindling the wood it had already 
dried, and mingled with the hissing and white vapor of the 
steaming moisture, a crackling of wood and a cloud of the 
smoke from the roasting flesh. 

The people were too much awed at first to make a sound 
or otherwise evince their feelings than to throw them- 
selves on their faces. Then, after a pause, all cried : 

" Yes, yes, the Lord, the Lord is God." 

The priests of Baal, who had at stake, fortune and fame, 
and who were moved by shame and envy which overpow- 
ered their dread and astonishment at the marvel, rushed in 
among the kneeling people and endeavored to induce them 
to disbelieve what they themselves had to credit. But, at 
their very first words : " A trick, a trick of this false 
prophet !" A fierce roar of indignation arose from those 
late their dunes. 



ELIJAH. 195 

" No, no, oh, liars ! have we not seen! It is the Lord of 
our fathers !" 

And, still the priests still persevering and even laying 
hands on the loudest of the new proselytes, one of them 
was struck to the earth. This fact removed the lingering 
shelter to their persons so recently supposed sanctified. 
They disappeared under the surging mass and never rose 
but when lifted, dead bodies. In a twinkling, no respect for 
King Ahab preventing, a number had flown to the altar of 
Baal and scattered it and his debased and shivered image to 
the winds by the light of the setting sun and the divine en- 
kindled fire. 

Thereupon, all having been done that the people could 
think of, they flocked back to Elijah, prepared to take his 
orders before those of their ruler even. 

But the former had gone to the improvised throne and 
respectfully said to Ahab : " My Lord, you will do well to 
rise and prepare to return to the city, where you may feast, 
believing in the Lord, who has displayed a faint token of 
his immeasurable power just now. The drouth is ended, 
I hear the rain coming." 

The people clapped their hands for joy, and shouted, while 
Elijah went up to the top of mount Carmel, where he knelt 
to pray. Six times he lifted up his head bowed in rever- 
ence, and looked down on the masses ; they were scanning 
the horizon, clear, except that the sun was nearly down. 
But as the prophet raised himself a seventh time, as with one 
voice all cheerfully exclaimed, while they pointed with a 
thousand fingers at the horizon : 

" See, see ! oh, joy, joy, joy ! the cloud, the rain-cloud." 

In truth though no bigger than a man's hand at first, a 
black speck rose in the distance and extended its dark wings 
as it came looming up. The people packed up their tents 
and scattered over the plain into the towns and houses. 



196 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

Elijah descended the eminence, and said to King Ahab : 

" Hasten into your chariot and off! The like of the first 
day of our father Noah's deluge comes I" 

As he spoke he gathered up his long vestment and, tight- 
ening his girdle, ran on towards Jezreel, and .he hurried at 
such a pace that he preceded the royal chariot and its two 
fleet horses, lashed with stout bullhide whips though they 
were, all the way. 

The whole heavens had been over-clouded and the sun 
had glared red through a bank of blackness ere it went down. 
Some large drops had already fallen ere all were in shelter, 
but then the rain fell in sheets and masses, as it were, mak- 
ing the trees of the mountain quiver with gladness to have 
their shriveled leaves and scorched bark bathed since so 
long, making the empty beds of rivulets foam merrily to the 
highest brink, making the withered plants bow under pro- 
fusion of welcome moisture, making Jordan swell its con- 
tracted breadth, and making the re-born people unite in a 
song of praise and thankfullness. 

Despite the showers which washed the corpses of the 
false priests above ground on the plain beside their de- 
throned idol and its fractured altar, the celestial fire contin- 
ued to burn until it had consumed all of the offering and 
the fluid. Its mysterious light was seen by the curious 
who tried to pierce, from their windows, the thick veils of 
falling rain. 

But, if King Ahab and his people were overjoyed at the 
end of the dry weather, the queen, who was as much of an 
idolatress as ever, was enraged at the death of the priests, 
her favorites. Elijah heard that she had sworn : " May my 
gods forget me, if I do not make that prophet's life even as 
those poor martyrs' are." 

He knew that he could not trust the king, and he did not 
wish to bring harm upon anybody who might shelter him 



ELIJAH. 19T 

hence he made all speed to Beersheba in Judah. where he 
left the one servant who had shared in his flight, and 
thence penetrated a day's march into the solitude. There 
he laid himself down under a juniper bush and fell asleep, 
while praying for his life to be taken away, for he believed 
he had done all that he could do and he was sick of being 
hunted like an animal. He dreamed that an angel placed 
something by the pillow he had made of a bunch of leaves 
and soft twigs, and had said : " Rise and eat !" 

By the morning light, as he awoke, he saw a pitcher of 
water and a cake by his side. On them, he spent the first 
day. The next night, the same vision occurred again, and 
again the food was deposited ; but the angel had added this 
time : " Eat and drink heartily, for you have a long journey 
before you to the sacred Mount Horeb." 

By the strength of that supernatural provision, Elijah 
walked forty days and forty nights, by which time he had 
arrived on the level ground over which towered the Mount 
of God, Horeb. On the summit of it, he dwelt in a cave, 
and knelt in its entrance to pray for heaven to direct his 
future steps. 

A great black storm obscured the sky and made the noon 
midnight, and with it roared a wind which came rolling on 
before it, shattered boughs wrenched from strongest trees 
and even huge rocks as a zephyr carries leaves, to shake 
the mountain itself. Increasing in force, it surged on and 
on till chaos seemed threatened again. Horeb rocked 
and made Elijah tremble with its motion as much as he 
trembled with the violence of the tempest. He had to 
stretch himself on the ground and hold on by shrubs. On 
the plain the sand was stirred up in banks, and in whirls 
ascended till, meeting one another, the columns mingled 
and fell before the blast. The trees bowed till near break- 



198 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

ing, and rocks were tore from the heights to crash to the 
bottom and split to atoms. 

In such a scene of commotion, in which the prophet 
felt what a mite he was to the Illimitable, he believed every 
moment that he would be addressed. 

But the Lord was not in the swift coursing cloud, nor in 
the tumultuous wind. 

After the simoom had wrecked almost everything in its 
passage, and let the fragments of ruin it had caused quiet 
themselves, a new terror was spread before Elijah's awed 
gaze. In a thousand places over the plain, the earth, first 
shivering and then heaving in agony, rent its bosom asun- 
der and opened widely-gaping clefts. Poor animals, that 
had cowered to the dust at the storming of the tornado and 
had ventured out of cover in the succeeding calm, were 
swallowed up in the chasms abruptly yawning under them, 
and their yells, as they fell down, down, down through the 
pit without bottom, resounded fainter and fainter after they 
had long been lost to sight in the horrid depths. Whole 
sides of the chain of hills bordering the plain, unloosed by 
the earthquake, parted the connection of roots of trees 
with an almost human groan and shriek and, toppling over 
as though breasted forward by a giant, struck the shudder- 
ing flat beneath, like an immense hammer smiting a colossal 
anvil. Gulfs opened to receive the weight at the signal- 
shock, and let into their long-reaching and ample mouths the 
tons on tons of earth, trees and rocks. Crash and stroke, 
rending and snapping, rattling and crushing, swelled into 
depressing, overpowering clangor. 

But the Lord was not in the earthquake. 

Out of the hungry jaws of the split and wounded sur- 
face, still opening as if for more food, came tongues of flame 
of all hues which began to search the untouched ground. 



ELIJAH. 199 

The whole became a field of fire ploughed by shares of 
coruscated light. The heated smoke rose even to the top 
of Horeb and eaveloped the praying prophet. 

But the Lord was not in the fire. 

Abyss after abyss was veiled and the precipices joined 
their edges. Destruction covered all the vestiges of its 
work that it could, and the racked plain ceased to moan its 
anguish. A deeper stillness than of old encompassed and 
overruled the scene. Not a single sound dared to reveal 
itself. The beasts were dead, entombed far underground 
in the healed gashes, or stifled by the vanished vapor. The 
birds had long before been swept away by the tornado. The 
silence might have been felt. Elijah ceased to breathe or 
murmur spoken prayers. In his mind noiselessly he formed 
his supplications. 

In the very depth of the calm, these words floated to his 
ears, without breaking the silence so small and still was the 
Voice : 

" What doest thou here, Elijah?" 

" Forgive me, God, I have been over hasty, and have beg- 
ged thee to take away the life thou didst give me. Forgive, 
forgive. Bat the Israelites have forgotten thee, and have 
slain thy people till I am the only prophet left. My life, too, 
is endangered." 

The Voice gave him counsel, and, in pursuance, Elijah 
proceeded to Damascus, where he was to anoint Hazael, 
King for Syria and Jehu for Israel, and choose Elisha of 
Abelmeholah as successor to him as prophet. 

Meanwhile Benhadad, King of Syria, had made war 
against Samaria, the only condition he allowed for peace 
being that King Ahab should consent to do more than yield 
tribute, that is, let the Syrian choose whatever he pleased 
high or low, living or dead, in Samaria. This was too shame- 
ful to be submitted to, and an indignant response went back 



200 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

by the Syrian messengers. They returned with his threat 
to King Ahab : 

** Tremble, foolish ruler. I come with a force which num- 
bers more of the fearless and strong than there are handfulla 
of dust in Samaria." 

" Tell your master," said the King of Israel, " that no one 
should cry till they are out of danger. He that puts on his 
armor to go into a fray, should not laugh as he may who dis- 
eases himself a victor." 

This defiance came to Benhadad as he was feasting with 
his nobles in the royal tent, and he gave immediate orders 
for his troops to be set in array of battle. 

But Elijah appeared before King Ahab and said. " The 
Lord will give all that mighty army into your power. By 
that you will learn who is the true God. Not your whole 
force but only the sons of the princes of the provinces, shall 
go out against their multitude and make the onset." 

The sons of the viceroys were but two hundred and thirty, 
yet, inspired by the promise of Elijah, they did not hesitate 
to leave their friends and march dauntlessly towards the 
foes long line. The rest of the Israelites, seven thousand 
strong, prepared for an advance while watching them. 
Word came to Benhadad that a small party of the enemy ap- 
proached, so small and so richly dressed that they were 
probably come to parley and submit and he, laughing, still 
revelling, at the table, said : 

" If they are only so few, do not draw bow or poise spear 
against them, but take them prisoners." 

Hence the little band of Israelites were left near the out- 
posts. But, when a hundred rushed upon them to seize 
them, they w T ere received so hotly that the survivors gave 
way. The princes followed them close by, smiting them 
as they ran, and entered the hostile lines at their backs. 
The rest of King Ahab's troops hurried on and took ad van- 



ELIJAH. 201 

tage of the opening made to convert the surprise into a 
rout. The Syrians were utterly defeated, horse and foot, 
and Benhadad was hardly able to escape in a chariot during 
the melee. 

The prophet amidst general rejoicing, advised Ahab to 
strengthen his army and not let the victory delude him into 
injurious ease, for the King of Syria would be up in arms 
against him by the next year. True enough , for the idea had 
spread chiefly from King Benhadad, through Syria that they 
had been so disgracefully defeated because they had fought 
with the Israelites on the high lands. They fancied that 
the Hebrew God, from their having daily remembered of 
Moses on mount Sinai, Elijah of late on Horeb and similar 
cases, had influence solely on events to occur on the emi- 
ences. So they reasoned, we will challenge them to fight 
us on the plains. 

The Israelite monarch replied to the defiance that he 
was always ready to encounter them, on the burning sands 
or by the river's brink, on the hill top or in the valley, and 
moreover, that he, with his lesser force, would ask the 
Syrians to attack him with the same numbers as they 
had the six or eight months before. At the season, Ben- 
hadad, who had set a-field a body precisely the same as 
he had led one year ago, horse for horse, chariot for chariot, 
man for man, spread them over the country. They were 
confronted by two divisions of Israelites, whose disparity 
made the combatants appear like two flocks of goats facing 
herds on herds of cattle. 

Elijah preached to Ahab's army and to him, bidding 
them keep courage in their hearts for the Great Command- 
er who had marshalled them to victory months since was 
an Everlasting One, and that a year was but as a minute 
to Him. The false objects of worship might by chance or 
9* 



202 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

cunning execute marvels, but the Inimitable alone could 
repeat His miracles. 

" Remember," continued the prophet to Ahab, " that 
death awaits Benhadad as the earthly penalty of his having 
dared in his pride to judge the Omnipotent and confine his 
might to the high places of the whole earth that was moul- 
ded at His beck." 

They fought for several days, Syrian and Israelite in turn 
prevailing. On the last day the right overcame the might, 
and a hundred thousand fell of Benhadad's bravest. The 
rest were hotly pursued to the city of Aphek, where their 
own numbers so shook the street along the wall that it 
gave way and crushed many thousands of them. Benha- 
dad and a few of his captains took refuge in this town, 
having escaped suffocation in the press. 

" If we seek to flee farther," said the ruined monarch, 
" we can scarcely avoid capture, for all the horses are dis- 
abled by the long conflict, and the country in our rear is 
up in arms against our retreat. We cannot make a stand 
here, for the wall that fell leaves too much space open. 
We have heard that the Kings of Israel are merciful. Let 
you present yourselves to this Ahab and beg mercy." 

So they, in their beaten armor, having sackcloth about 
their middles and halters around their necks to show com- 
plete submission, appeared before the victor. He, forget- 
ting or unheeding the divine sentence, consented to re- 
ceive the vanquished ruler to whom he gave safe conduct. 
With him, in their interview, he made a treaty. 

Then Elijah went to meet Ahab by the way, having 
painted his face to disguise it with fire-ashes. He called on 
the king to stop and hear him. 

" My master," he said in a feigned voice, " I demand 
judgment of your wisdom. I was in the battle lately 



ELIJAH. 203 

where the Lord blessed your royal arm. A comrade who 
had taken a captive, was near me. He gave the prisoner 
to me, saying : ' Keep this man — if he is missing you will 
have to answer for him with your life ?' I agreed. The 
prisoner, I afterwards allowed to escape. Now, my king, 
what punishment do I deserve?" 

" That which you agreed to receive if you were faulty. 
Not you ; but he alone who placed trust in you, can alter 
the sentence." 

Then Elijah wiped the ashes from his face and stood re- 
vealed. 

" Oh, King, if the man was guilty who broke faith given 
to his fellow man, what shall be said of you, who broke 
the pledge given to God above. The Lord saith : inas- 
much as you have let the doomed Benhadad free, your life 
shall answer in his stead, your people for his people." 

Ahab was more grieved than angry, and he let the 
prophet leave him unharmed. 

Soon after, it happened that Ahab coveted a fine vineyard, 
that belonged to a Jezreelite named Naboth and he was in- 
censed because the owner would neither give it to the 
King nor sell it at any price whatever. The monarch took 
the disappointment so much to heart that he would eat 
nothing. His Queen, the wicked Jezebel, could not help 
noticing his mental ailment and having discovered the 
cause, laughed her malicious, ill-boding laugh. 

"Why, Ahab, husband," said she with flashing eyes " is 
it you that reign over this kingdom ? Weak monarch must 
a feeble woman teach } T ou. Rise, eat cakes and drink of 
the muddy dancing wine out of your favorite gold cup. Be 
merry, while you listen to my plan to give you the obstinate 
fellow's vineyard." 

Next day the chief men of Jezreel received script under 



204 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

the royal seal detailing a project and giving orders which 
they delayed not to accomplish. 

A few days afterwards, the people of that part were call- 
ed upon to keep a feast day, and Naboth, as a farmer of 
note, was placed high among the presidents of the festival. 
Iu furtherance of the conspiracy thereupon, two hirelings 
demurred at his elevation and accused him loudly of having 
blasphemed King Ahab and God whom they were assem- 
bled to praise. The indignant people hardly listening to 
wretches swearing to this lie, fell upon Naboth and chased 
him out of the town, where they threw stones at him till he 
died, according to the ancient law. As soon as this crime 
was done, and Jezebel had been informed, she told her hus- 
band, who hastened to go into the country and seize the 
coveted land, to which there was no heir except the crown. 

In the rich vineyard the king was strolling. He had the 
estate now at his feet, and yet he was less happy than when 
he had been separated from it by only a just man's life, a 
little barrier but a high one when grievous offense has to 
overstep it. He dared not pluck one of the once so-desired 
grapes, for the purple juice was as the innocent blood. 
He hated to see the bed, the chairs, the dishes and cups, 
which so recently were the murdered man's. The stones 
he walked on reminded him of the ghastly heaps of such 
pebbles which a misled mob had hurled upon the guiltless. 
The vine-twigs dryly snapping under his feet, seemed echoes 
of the broken bones of the victim, happier with them 
bleaching in the sun and under the obloquy of his deceived 
friends than the living deceiver was. King Ahab detested 
the place, and turned to hurry back to the house, where 
were his servitors, and thence hasten to his palace. As he 
turned, the shadow of another man than he blackened the 
path. It was the last person he expected to see, the last 



ELIJAH. 205 

he would have wished to see : Elijah the prophet, with his 
grave and holily-illumined face. 

"Ha !" cried the king, glad to cover the dread he felt in 
that prototype of the field of blood-money, with wrath, " so 
again my enemy finds me ? Not content to trouble at hours 
of audience, he must come to vex my pleasure." 

" I have found you. I am come to you because you have 
agreed to do evil against an innocent creature of God, who 
promises by my humble lips this doom against you. King 
Ahab, you and yours shall be like the families of all who 
have wrought wickedness. In the very place where the 
pure life-stream of Naboth was licked up by dogs, your 
royal but guilt-blackened blood shall be given to the beasts. 
And Jezebel shall eat by JezreeFs walls ! her name alone 
shall live to be cursed to the hundredth generation." 

Ahab's pride and anger, which had flushed his cold cheek, 
faded away before so chilling and piercing a denunciation. 
He feared, too, the power of heaven, which had been dis- 
played on his thankless behalf. He waved the prophet to 
leave him and he reeled with tear-streaming eyes and cov- 
ered face, into the house of his sinful obtaining. He clad 
himself in sackcloth, poured dust on his head, fasted and, 
indeed, repented to his heart. And as heaven, be the crim- 
inal however steeped in misdeeds, is as full of mercy to the 
vilest as to the purest, for it is even more just than just, 
perfect above perfection, the judgement was delayed, only 
to be executed three years after, during the new war be- 
tween Syria and Israel. 

Ahab had relapsed, under the speeches of Queen Jezebel, 
and he had so far believed that he had escaped the divine 
condemnation that he shut up in prison one who foretold 
his death, on the eve of his going out to battle at Ramoth 
of Gilead. To prevent the irresistible sentence, he dis- 
guised himself, for he had heard that the King of Syria had 



206 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

especially commanded his men to pick Ahab out from hia 
host. So the fight went on, without any but the Israelites 
knowing that their king was still among them though out 
of place. But in vain, naturally, were his precautions, for 
an arrow shot unaimed in the thick of the onslaught, pierced 
him under his gorget and snapped its head off in the great 
wound. His officers advised him not to be taken out of the 
combat then, as his presence was of value at so critical a 
moment, and three of his attendants held him up in his 
chariot, faint for loss of blood. It ran down copiously un- 
der his breastplate, which they dared not unclasp, and coat- 
ed the sides and bottom of the car. He died as the sun 
went down in a sky reddened like the bloody field. As 
his ears closed in death, he heard the Israelites, showing all 
was lost, cry out : '• Every man to his home !" 

They brought the slain monarch to Samaria and buried 
him there. Some happened to call to mind Elijah's predic- 
tion, and they laughed to think that Ahab was sepulchred 
without the dogs having tasted of his blood. While they 
were thus considering that the word of God had come to 
nothing, it was really being fulfilled. For the servants had 
taken the royal war-chariot down to the pond to wash it, 
and had left it near the gates of Jezreel, where they entered 
to the centre of groups of friends eager to hear of the 
battle from the lips of those fresh from its heart. The wild 
dogs, which prowled around the market place and the 
shambles, scented the blood upon the car, and, not afraid 
of the horses, gathered around. Bolder and bolder they 
grew till some even entered the body by the low steps be- 
hind, and then, inside and out, wherever the blood had 
gushed, spattered or been sprinkled on the chariot, tho 
dogs applied their tongues. The prediction was carried 
out to the letter, in act and place. 

Ahaziah, the son of Ahab in heart as by birth, ascended 



ELIJAH. 20T 

the throne in turn, acknowledging as superior to him only 
the false god Baal. Hence, on his suffering from a severe 
fall he had had out of his window, where he had fallen 
asleep one afternoon, he sent to the god of Ekron, Baalze- 
bub to make presents to his image and inquire of his sooth- 
sayers whether he would recover. 

But the messengers were encountered on the way by 
Elijah, who bade them retrace their steps and take his 
words to their master. 

" My lord the king,'' said they, to explain their so abrupt 
return, " we met a strange man, aged, wild-looking and be- 
girt with a strap of hide, who told us to say this to you : 
" The Lord, because you have dared to think of Baalzebub 
the false before the only and true God, declares that you 
shall never quit your bed alive !" 

Ahaziah was in as much anger as pain, and he hastily 
despatched a captain with fifty men to discover the inso- 
lent man, whom he suspected to be the same Elijah who 
had been the galling thorn to his father, and kill him under 
pretence of meaning to bring him to him the king. The 
soldiers found Elijah on top of a hill. 

" Oh man of heaven," said the captain in no little fear, 
for he was an old man who knew of the prophet's former 
deeds, " pardon me, but I must do my duty. The King 
commanded me to bring you before him." 

He made an advance, climbed the hill with his followers 

;< If I am thought by you to be a man of heaven," said 
Elijah, you should not have undertaken such a task. You 
continue — well ! May lire from heaven be the death of you 
and yours." 

lightnings circled around the prophet, and stretched 
dead, as they clambered, the fifty men, and the captain, ex- 
cept two or three who had hesitated and who had ran away 
with the tidings. But the King: would not believe the tale, 



208 THE BOYS OP THE BIBLE. 

and ordered another officer with a similar troop to make 
haste and seize the man who had offered resistance to the 
royal mandate. These found the prophet in the same place, 
and, on beholding the dead bodies of their commanders 
around the base of the hill, blue and lived with the unearthly 
flame that had blasted them, instead of being appalled, they 
were spurred on by the sight, and, with fierce shouts and 
oaths, and menaces with their weapons, they made a rush 
up the steep. Elijah sat where he was, unmoving, except 
that his lips modulated a prayer. 

As before lightnings flashed out and shot upon the sol- 
diers' deadly points, paralyzing their hands by alighting on 
their swords and causing their death. One escaped, who 
had been holding his officer's horse on the plain, and who 
threw himself on its back to gallop off in terror with the 
news. But Ahaziah, no wise foiled in his determination, 
sent a third company, who, however, were only to seize the 
prophet and bring him into the royal presence. The cap- 
tain of the party was a God-fearing man, and the destruction 
of his predecessors was a lesson he would not have requir- 
ed. He respectfully ascended the acclivity alone, having 
commanded his men to halt, and fell upon his knees before 
Elijah. 

" Oh, man of heaven," he besought, " let my life, as well 
as those of the fifty men over whom I am set, be precious 
in your eyes and not things of nothing as were the hundred 
of my late companions in arms who lie below, dead by celes- 
tial bolts. Let my life be more than theirs, and come wil- 
lingly before my master, for I give you my word not a hand 
shall be lifted against you, or let me return to be punished 
for disobedience." 

Elijah descended and went with him to the king. When 
before him, he repeated what he had already transmitted 
to him by his own messengers. 

^ 



ELIJAH. 209 

According to the Word, Ahaziah died in his bed of the 
fall. 

Elijah had not lived like common men nor did he die like 
such. In the sight of his companion Elisha, who was to 
inherit his spirit of prophecy, the man, who had served in 
the cause of heaven from his earliest days amid sharp per- 
secution and painful deprivations, with unvarying purity 
and devotion, was swept up from the earth in a car of fire 
and by the breath of a whirlwind. 



210 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 



ELISHA. 



There was a youth the son of Shaphat a farmer of Abel- 
meholah, who while obeying *his parents' and his elders' 
commands, had never forgotten or failed to obey the higher 
commandments on Moses' tables of the law. And so he 
grew up. 

One day he was ploughing a newly bought piece of land 
of his father. It had never been tilled and he had twelve 
yoke of oxen to the plough, and even that number with 
difficulty made the furrow in the matted and packed earth. 
He was making the turn at the end of the line, and was hold- 
ing the heads of the leaders' when an old man, passing by 
the road paused and stopped him in his labor. They ex- 
changed names, when, no sooner had Elisha heard that the 
stranger was the revered Prophet Elijah than, bowing res- 
pectfully, he besought him to come into his father's house 
and be entertained as he merited. 

11 My young friend, this is ray heaven-sent order which 
does not permit any delay. I am to tell you that, when I 
shall have departed my life, you, even you — be not astonish- 
ed, for, in truth you have pleased Him you serve — are 
to succeed me. In token, see !" 

And he enrobed him for the moment in his traveling-cloak. 
He would have gone on, thereupon, but Elisha retained 
him. 

" Let me only run and kiss good bye to my father and 
mother, and then I will follow you where you will." 



ELI3HA. 211 

M Nay, nay, go back to your oxen. I have no need of 
you." 

Elisha let him go, but, instantly going home, he sacrificed 
a yoke of oxen on a fire of their own goads, poles and yokes 
and feasted his friends. He bade all farewell, and made 
haste to overtake Elijah, with whom he remained ever 
after, through all the changes of the crowned heads of Ju- 
dah and Israel. Happy in confidence, happy in belief, 
happy in hope, his early years passed, though many were 
the persecutions and afflictions which his new life attracted 
to him from the worshippers of idols and haters of pure 
religion. His first real sadness, for he would have had to 
be much more than man to have felt unmoved, was when 
his old companion told him that he was soon to quit earth. 
He saw with how painful a grief it filled Elisha and hence, 
to spare him the sight of his dissolution, he begged to be 
let go alone from Gilgah. 

" Elijah my father," said Elisha, " we have been together 
too long for us to part now, if ever. Have I had too much 
of your wise and holy company, heaven forbid." 

So he would be his partner to one place, and then to 
another, and finally to the River Jordan. Some fifty of 
their scholars had escorted them at a more than respectful 
distance. At the bank, Elijah stopped. 

u My friend, I cross here." 

" And I, if I may, master. T will not leave you." 

" If the Master wills, not I, Elisha. See !" 

As he spoke, the old prophet took his mantle, rolled it 
up like a mace and began to lash the waters of the wide- 
bosomed stream. The waves divided as they had done at 
the advance of the sacred ark ages before to let Joshua's 
people cross by the dried bed. By the same road, being 
made by his cloak,- Elijah led his fearless, confiding compan- 



212 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

ion across, between two walls of foaming, surging waves, 
to the opposite bank. 

" Before I am taken away from you, for I know my end 
approaches," said Elijah, " ask what I shall do for you." 

Elisha was silent for a space, and he regarded now the 
river, now the fair landscape, but mostly the sky. 

"I would do my portion of holy work on the earth," 
said he, " I am too weak to do what I wish of myself." 

" You have asked much," said Elijah, shaking his head, 
" and yet I would have liked. you not so much had you 
desired less. As far as I a man, can promise, it is yours, 
but such power must be implanted only in the hearts that 
our Lord has prepared. Let this be the proof of your fit- 
ness. If you see the celestial bearer of me from earth, your 
eyes are surely unsealed, and you are my successor." 

They prayed in concert, and, imitating them on the other 
side of the Jordan running as ever, the disciples bowed 
the knee. 

" All of a sudden the grasshoppers and crickets ceased 
to chirp, the birds hurried with quicker wing to refuge, a 
stillness of the air ensued in which the sound of one blade 
of grass striking another would have been heard. There 
sprang up a noise no louder than a honey bee's trumpet at 
first, but rapidly growing in immensity of sound, till, in all 
its overpowering might, a whirlwind surged upon the pray- 
ing pair. The disciples looked up at the sound, but only saw 
a circling cloud of sand, leaves, dust, forming a column from 
the ground to the clouds. As they looked it was gone. 

Elisha was alone. 

He had seen a chariot as a golden flame, on fiery wheels, 
and drawn by winged steeds more than matchless for beauty 
on earth, and angels guided them with lily-bands for reins. 
Elijah, swept into it by the tempest, was carried off in a 
moment. 



ELISHA. 213 

The storm was over as abruptly as it came. 

The mantle of Elijah had fallen from him doubtlessly de- 
signedly. It was taken up reverently by Elisha, who 
beat back Jordan and crossed by the dried up path he 
made, saying ; *» 

" Be mine, oh, Lord God of Elijah, gone to the saints' re- 
ward." 

The disciples, murmuring : " The spirit of Elijah is in 
his friend," hurried to meet him as he touched the bank 
and as the cloven sheet reunited and dashed forward as 
before, and to salute him. 

" Let us go, on," they said, " in search of Elijah, for may- 
hap the spirit of the Lord has only conveyed him to some 
other part of the country." 

It was a long while before Elisha yielded to this wish, for 
he was too deeply convinced of the completeness of his 
friend's departure to realms above, but as he saw they would 
set about the search at even the cost of his displeasure, he 
sanctioned the desire. But, gallop and run as the fifty and 
their friends did from place to place far over the country 
on either edge of the stream, not a sign did they find of the 
prophet. He was, beyond doubt, forever spirited away. 
Three days search was so much time lost. Elisha had stayed 
so long at Jericho, where they came to report their non- 
success. He had only waited to see them convinced and 
was about to depart. 

" Oh, master," dear master," said the scholars appealingly, 
" do not go elsewhere, where evil may attend you. Stay 
here with us who love you, wise and dear one, the city is 
in a pleasant place and has but the one defect, alack of good 
water." 

" Nay, here, at my feet," said Elisha, " I see a spring 
most abundantly flowing, and its waters swell into quite a 



214 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

brook ere they reach the city's wall. You are surely in 
error to speak of want of water." 

" Of good water, master most honored," said one, " we 
stand corrected. This stream is as disagreeable as plen- 
teous. It even blasts the land, see how its banks are far 
from fringed with vegetation." 

" As it is not, it shall be," said Elisha, " for the hospitality 
given for no reward, shall be repaid. Give me," continued 
he looking around, " ah, yes, is it not salt that Haburim has 
in his wallet ?" 

" My master, it is salt, new and fresh dried from the sea. 
T was keeping it for my sick brother's cattle as a sort of 
delicacy for them, poor beasts. They have not been out 
to pasture since he took to his bed." 

" Well, give it me." 

The bag was put readily into the prophet's hands 
which, one holding the receptacle, the other removing the 
contents, sprinkled the salt into the spring, only a few 
step 8 from them. 

" Bitter and blasted waters," said he, " which have made 
barren the land, be healed and carry fertility and felicity 
throughout your course, in place of death and harm." 

With this blessing given, he went to Bethel, in whose 
valley Jacob had set up his stone pillow for a memorial of 
the vision which he had there had. Elifcha before ascend- 
ing the hill, stopped to rest as well as to watch some chil- 
dren who were merrily playing under oaks sprung up per- 
haps from the seed of the tree beneath which aged Deborah 
had been buried. He had first smiled to see the youths 
enjoying themselves so heartily, for the prophet, though a 
man of years, of study and of gravity, ever loved childhood 
as its usual purity demanded, but presently his countenance 
assumed a saddened expression. The wicked little fellows, 



ELISHA. , 215 

in imitation of their fathers, had really made a pile of 
stones for an altar in front of the blackened stump of a 
lightning blasted tree, which bore some resemblance to the 
human form with its two charred boughs for arms. One of 
them was bringing a torch, a brand taken from the oven of 
his parent's house close by, and was about to kindle the 
wood, while half a dozen more, laughing, were trying to 
kill a poor little puppy which vainly bit with its tiny teeth, 
writhed and scratched to get away from their feeble mis- 
directed cuts. 

In a moment, Elisha had turned and reached the group, 
where the mere waving of his w T alking staff made the 
alarmed tormentors drop the dog, which, bleeding in four 
or five places, ran away yelping, and the firebrand, on which 
Elisha put his foot for fear its flames might spread from, the 
grass to the grove. While he overturned the pile of wood 
and the rude altar, the boys, who had scampered off, had 
re-assembled and, though they had sufficient respect for his 
venerable look not to pelt him with stones, they hurled on 
him all the epithets gross and insulting that they had al- 
ready learnt. Their noise gave the prophet no opportunity 
to explain his conduct and seek to convert their hearts so 
early sin-steeped. They would not approach him for fear 
of his intending treachery and beating them. 

Elisha turned and proceeded on his w r ay. The children 
grew emboldened at his retreat, and raised their voices all 
the louder in taunts and cries. They followed him thus to 
the foot of the hill, when as his back was turned to them, 
they did not hesitate two or three of them, to gain the ap- 
plause of their playfellows, to fling bits of bark, sticks and 
even flint and stones at him. Several struck him but had 
their force dulled by hitting his cloak ; one stone, by 
chance directed, threw off his turban to the ground. This, 



216 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

by uncovering the venerable head, afforded the party, a 
little frightened at what they had done, fresh food for 
sport. 

" Go on, old bald-head !" cried all voices. " Go up, go up, 
bald-head l" 

Elisha turned to pick up his turban, and he spoke 
against them in the name of heaven. 

Two she-bears, preying about for provision for their 
cubs, appeared at the margin of the wood. The children 
and the beasts perceived one another at the same time. 
The former, with shrieks and screams filling the air that 
had lately rung with their mockery and irreverence ran 
away. The animals followed, and ravenously killed 
forty and more of them, before the villagers could collect 
and beat off the hunters of their children. 

Elisha was at Gingal, teaching, when, a dearth being in 
in the land, there was a failure of provisions. As there 
were more scholars gathered to him than he had expected, 
his little stock of food was speedily exhausted. As they 
were willing, however, to be content under any depriva- 
tions if they could enjoy his wisdom, they were in the 
habit of taking soup, for which they collected the vegeta- 
bles themselves. One of the young men, in collecting, had 
picked the fruit of a poisonous wild vine, which was cut 
up in the kettle with the wholesome herbs. They had 
hardly taken a spoonful each than their throats and lips 
were burnt and blistered, and they suffered acute pain. The 
more hasty were on the point of upsetting all into the fire, 
when Elisha appeared to ask the reason of the outcries 
and the strange actions. 

" master, there is death in the pot !" 

It was explained to him, when he took a handful of com- 
mon bruised corn, and sprinkled it in the preparation. 



ELISHA. 21 T 

" Pour out now," said he, " and you will see that no 
harm will ensue, and that you who are uufortunately in 
pain, will be immediately relieved." 

He was partaking with them, when a rider, richly attired* 
called for him. 

It appeared that King Jehoram, of Israel and King Jehos- 
aphat of Judah, had combined to punish the King of Moab, 
who had refused to render his promised and customary trib- 
ute. The chief of the Edomites also allied himself with the 
two former and gave them passage through his territory. 
Now, there were seven days that they had been marching 
through the sands of Edom without having met any water, 
and the suffering troops, their provision being exhausted, 
were in some cases slaying the camels for the water in their 
second stomachs. 

" Alas !" said Jehoram, " to think that we are growing 
weaker and weaker daily only to be children in the hands 
of Moab." 

Jehosaphat before desponding utterly, wished to consult 
a prophet and hence it was that Elisha was brought before 
them. Elisha answered, not to obey or to please the King 
of Israel who was an evil doer, but to give pleasure to the 
King of Judah who was a man of piety and intelligence. 
And inasmuch as he would not himself foretell before an in- 
fidel like Jehoram, he ordered a minstrel to be his interpre- 
ter. 

So while the harper was playing and singing some idle 
song he suddenly changed the theme and chanted solemnly : 

" Thus saith the Lord, prepare in this valley so bleached 
and scorched many ditches to enclose your men. Nor shall 
ye see rain, saith the Lord, but, nevertheless, this hollow 
shall be filled with water, by which ye and yours and your 
cattle may drink. And as this is a little thing for the All- 
powerful, He will, over and above that, deliver the King of 
10 



218 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

Moab into your hands, for the sake of his righteous leavened 
in among your hosts, and for the sake of the punishment that 
should befal Moab. And ye are to destroy his nests of evil 
idolatry, his chief cities and lesser towns, saith the Lord tho 
God !" 

As the inspired harper fell down in a swoon and was only 
revived with exceeding care, Elisha confirmed the speech. 
At dawn, when the meat offering was made, a great sheet 
of water, like the Salt Sea moving for size, poured on, wash- 
ing all before it, into Edom and converted the level ground 
into one lake of many branches. The army had done well 
in throwing up embankments during the night. Many of 
the companies had prudently encamped on the hillsides. 

In the meantime, the Moabites had got together their 
forces and had marched during the early hours of morning 
to surprise the allies. The sun shone on the water in the 
distance, and as they saw it blush with the auroral streak- 
ings, they, unable to attribute the unexpected sight to the 
real and simple cause, hastened to suppose that the confed- 
erates had quarrelled and taken to arms, and that this was 
the blood. 

" On, on, Moab ! they have slain one another, to us the 
spoil!" was the war-cry, as in disorder they rushed onto 
be doubly undeceived, for the enemy was a-stir and met 
their greedy front as quickly as it stopped on seeing it was 
merely a flood before them, and so savagely that the Moab- 
ites fled at the charge. They were chased into their own 
country, whose strong places as well as the weak fell into 
the grasp of the combined forces. 

One of the daughters-in-law T of a faithful follower of God, 
becoming very poor, applied for relief to the only person 
fihe knew, Elisha. 

"My master," said she, "my husband, no less a good 
servant of you than of heaven, is dead. He owed a certain 



ELISHA. 219 

man some money and I cannot begin to pay it. The credi- 
tor threatens to take away my two boys as bondmen." 

" I am poor myself as regards money," returned Elisha 
" Have you nothing at home ?" 

" Nothing, except a jar of olive oil, which would sell for 
no price worth mention." 

* Enough. Go and borrow of your neighbors — one so 
worthy as you must have kind ones — all the empty vessels 
you can, and, when you have them all in your house, shut 
the doors and begin to fill them, with the help of your sons." 

" I believe in you, my master." 

" Believe in heaven, rather." 

The woman collected all the jars, pitchers, tubs, and bot- 
tles that she could obtain, and shut herself up in her house 
with her sons. She began to pour from her little pot, when 
its contents overflowed a bucket thrice its size. So, with 
another and another trial, until all the vessels were full 
She hurried, on that, to Elisha to tell him. 

" Go sell the oil," said he, " and pay the debt. Live with 
your sons on the balance. Remember the poor who have 
no miracles performed for them on this earth." 

There was a woman of Shunarn at whose house Elisha 
had lived once upon a time, whose son fell ill to death. 
She remembered him after all the physicians had pro- 
nounced their worst apprehensions, and begged her hus- 
band to let her apply to the prophet. She was let have her 
own way, and she rode with a servant — for her husband 
was a man of property — to Mount Carmel, where Elisha was 
then dwelling. 

The latter saw her in the distance, and he hurried to send 
his servant to meet her and ask news of her, for he believed 
Bhe was merely passing by. But she continued to ride to- 
wards him, and, when she had dismounted rear him, she 
ran forward and threw herself down at his feet. Elisha's 



220 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

servant would have removed her, but he prevented him, 
saying : 

" ' Tis my good friend of Shunam. Let her be. The 
Lord has hid her trouble from me. Is it not well with 
you ? your husband ? your child ?" 

" It is well, master, with all your servants, except my 
boy. He is sick, he is perhaps dead at this hour. Oh, I 
won't leave you, holy man, unless you will restore him life 
and health. I mean — oh, I am wild with grief! — I mean — 
oh, do help him, my poor boy ! I have no right to ask you, 
but I know heaven will hear you, when my sinful prayers 
are unworthy its listening." 

" Gehazi," said the prophet to his attendant, " run on 
before, with my staff. Here ! and lay it on the child." 

The woman and Elisha followed the man. They met 
him returning when near Shunam. 

'* ' Tis no use," said he, shaking his head. " I laid the 
staff on him, but he neither breathed nor moved. He is 
dead!" 

" Wait," said Elisha, amid a fresh outburst of the moth- 
er's grief. 

He made all leave the death chamber, while he prayed 
over the boy, lifeless indeed. Gradually the clay-cold corpse 
grew warm to his touch and the faintest of breaths just 
perceptibly moved the youthful breast and lips. The child 
awoke to life. Then Elisha called in his servant and made 
him admit the mother, she had no sooner kissed her living 
son, than she fell on her knees to render thanks. Her husband 
and his household would have feasted Elisha, but he would 
receive none of the glory which belonged to above. 

Naaman, the general of the armies of Syria, was a man 
beloved of heaven because he had done all he could for the 
right that had come within his sphere. He was afflicted 
with leprosy, that dreadful disease of the East. Above all 



ELISHA. 221 

his pleasure at being a renowned warrior, a respected man, 
a mighty lord, a favorite with the King, was this burden 
upon him, crushing out all perfect happiness. 

It happened that in one of the campaigns against the 
Isrealites, he had prevented one of his brutal soldiers 
killing a poor little girl, who had tried to save her father, and 
had kept her as his own captive, giving her to his wife, 
who brought her up with kindness. She had often heard 
her mistress mourning for her husband's misery and, at last, 
the little girl, eager to repay good with good as far as in 
her power lay, saii : 

" My good mistress, how I wish master dear were in 
Samaria. He could surely be cured of his sickness, by a 
great prophet of our God who lives there. Elisha they call 
him. He is as great as the Elijah who — you must have 
heard of it — was taken up to heaven so that nobody at all 
ever saw him more." 

"Are you sure that this man has any power?" asked 
the Syrian woman, leaping eagerly at the hope. 

" Oh, yes, in every body's mouth is some story of his 
wonders." 

"Oh, that is all, then, thank 3 r ou," said her mistress, 
letting her countenance fall, for there were but too many 
false prophets in our days, about whom many narratives 
circulate. So Elisha is great by fables handed from one to 
another with enlargements." 

" No, my good mistress," said the girl, " why, my father 
took me with him from Baalshallsha where we lived — but I 
musn't cry, must I, mistress? when they're all gone and you 
are so good to me ? Well, my father took some presents 
to Elisha and this little bit was enough and to spare for 
more than a hundred people." 

" Tell me how?" said Naaraan's wife, all attention. 

il Ah, that I can't, my lady," replied the little one simply, 



222 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

u this is all I saw, if you please. My father had five loaves 
of nice bread of the first ripened corn, twenty loaves of 
barley, and some of the biggest ears in the husk. Elisha 
thanked him — oh, he was so good though he was so old — I 
wasn't frightened a bit, for all I was very small, then — and 
he handed all to his servant, telling him to feed the people. 
Now there was ever so many people crowding around listen- 
ing to Elisha, for he was speaking so beautifully of the 
things of Zion — but I forgot, you are not of us. Forgive me, 

my lady ." 

" Go on, child, go on. No offence, of course." 
" There was more than a hundred people there, and, I am 
sure, what dear father brought wasn't more than he and 
my mother and I could have eaten. The prophet's servant, 
who ought to have known better, looked twice and said : 
* What, master, set this before a hundred folks ?' ' Yes/ 
said Elisha, looking up for a moment, (I thought) to heaven, 
' give it them, and I would that it were the bread of life, for 
with it the}' shall be satisfied. They shall eat the bread to 
their full.' And my lady, I saw it with my own little eyes — 
the servant broke and broke, and gave and gave, till all had 
a piece in their hands, and there were crumbs for the poor 
dogs still in our little basket. This is the least of his doings 
my mistress. Would you not like dear master to see the 
prophet ?" 

The wife hastened to speak to her husband, he, influ- 
enced and willing to grasp at a straw of recovery, begged to 
be permitted to have leave of absence for the visit. The King 
of Syria, to whom so faithful a servant was endeared, has- 
tened to recommend him with a complimentary tablet to the 
King of Israel. 

The latter read : " Now when this letter shall come and 
find you, brother king, in the health and with the hope of a 
long and happy life that we of Syria wish you, we would 



ELISHA. 223 

pray you to have my servant Naaman, the bearer, cured of 
his leprosy." 

" As the Lord liveth," exclaimed the king of Israel in sor- 
row, for he did not understand, " my brother of Syria must 
be only desirous of finding cause of a quarrel with me. He 
cannot really suppose me the King of heaven and able to 
heal the incurable !" 

Naaman explained, and on the news reaching Elisha he 
sent to the king. " Let the general visit me. He shall find 
there is one prophet in Israel." 

Without delay Naaman rode to Elisha's dwelling in his 
chariot. The prophet would not come out to him but gave 
Gehazi, his servant, these words to transmit : 

" Your cure, through heaven, will be thus : Go bathe sev- 
en times in the river Jordan, and sin no more." 

Naaman was angry. 

" By my father's sword, my own blade now ! is this what 
they call a prophet?" sneered he. "Why I thought he 
would come out, at least, and see me, wave his hands over 
me and call loudly on the God he worships. Why, we have 
our Damascene rivers Arbana and Pharpar, I might as well 
have bathed in them both and been doubly cured." 

But his followers reasoned with him, " Good, my master, 
would you not have obeyed the prophet if he had required 
a hard task ? Yes ? How much more willingly should you do 
his will when he speaks simply." 

He asked pardon for his hasty speech, yielded, and was 
drawn to the river, wherein he had scarcely laved himself, 
indeed, than he was well. As eager to retrieve his first in- 
gratitude as to show his present thankfulness, he hurried 
round to the house and insisted on seeing Elisha. 

He poured out his gratitude to him, and said : 

" Before all, I feel that the God of all is that of IsraeL 
Let me reward His minister." 



224 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

" No," returned Elisha, " nothing do I receive. Prove 
your gratitude by godly deeds. You owe much, pay 
much." 

" Let me ask another favor, then," entreated Naaman ; 
" May I have two mule-loads of earth from this path you 
daily tread, oh, man of God ? I will never worship by li- 
bation or oblation any other gods. The Lord of Israel is 
mine henceforth. But as I go with my master into the 
idol's temple and will have to bow as he does, may I have 
pardon for so doing ? Will the Lord pardon me ?" 

" Your heart not being in it, yes, it is to be hoped. Go 
in peace," said Elisha, returning into his house. 

Naaman rode off. Gehazi the servant was tempted. 

" My foolish master won't receive any gift from this rich 
man who could easily give and not miss. Why should I 
let the Syrian go untolled? But I'll run after and make all 
up with him." 

So saying, he hurried after the slowly-drawn chariot. 
Naaman saw him, and he ordered the horses to be stopped. 

" Is all well ?" said he anxiously. 

'* Oh, yes, quite, thank you. But my master sent me 
because an unexpected thing has happened. Two of his 
scholars have just arrived from Mount Ephraim, and he is 
desirous of properly entertaining them. Let me have for 
him and them a talent of silver and two suits of clothes." 

" With all my heart," returned the Syrian, '' and all the 
more readily as I have such things as presents for him, 
which he would not take. But not one talent of silver, but 
two, you shall have. No remonstrances." 

With that, he had two of his outriders loaded with the 
garments and with two bags of silver, and, accompanied 
by Gehazi, the Syrians retraced their steps to the house of 
the prophet. At the door the false servant took the gifts 



ELISHA. 225 

and sent the bearers away. He hid the things in his room 
and went in to his master the same as ever. 

* Where have you been, Gehazi ?" inquired Elisha. 

" Nowhere, master," said he blushingly. 

" Oh, false one in act and word, did I not watch yon 
from the tower ? Here it is a time when war is threatened 
with Syria, and you receive presents from the enemy ! 
For that and your perfidy, Naaman's disease is henceforth 
yours !" 

Such numbers had been let study under Elisha that they 
sadly embarrassed him to find lodging for them at his 
house. They saw this, and offered to build an extension 
themselves so as to spare him expense. Elisha went, with 
the party to the River Jordan, where they cut down trees. 
It chanced that, as one man was shaping out a beam, the 
head of his axe flew off the handle, struck a stone by the 
water's edge and bounded off into the stream. The work- 
man expressed great sorrow at the mishap for the imple- 
ment had been borrowed. Elisha asked to be shown the 
site of the axe's disappearance, where, on learning it, he 
threw a stick. The iron floated up to the top of the water 
and there kept itself beside the stick as buoyant as a cork. 
So it was easily recovered. 

The war broke out between Syria and Israel. The king 
of the latter country, one day, had given orders for the 
camps to be in certain places, when Elisha sent word, from 
Dothan on the border of Samaria, that the Syrians intended 
to occupy the same points and were too strong for him to 
attempt to dislodge them. Hence the Israelites foiled their 
enemies' plans. 

The King of Syria collected all his confidants and gener- 
als and, in anger, said that one of. them must be a traitor, 
or how could his most secret designs miscarry against Is- 
rael. One of the officers hastened to assure him that they 



226 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

all were faithful for it was Elisha the Prophet who had told 
the King of Israel what were his foe's private intentions : 
This Elisha who had done so much harm, was, even then, 
at Dothan and a sudden dash might be made on that place 
and he seized, the officer went on to say. In consequence, 
the enraged king urged, too, by the necessity of so dan- 
gerous a person being secured, ordered away a large force. 

Elisha's new servant had risen early, and the first thing 
he saw, was a circle of troops around about the city. He 
hurried in to his master. 

" The news in the street, master," said he, " is that you 
are the object of the array. I fear the citizens will seize 
you and deliver you up to save themselves." 

Elisha thought this probable, and, to save the towns- 
people, he and his servant went through to the gates and 
out on the plain. 

" Alas, master, what shall we do, for see, in fifty yards 
more we shall be at their outposts." 

" Fear not. We have more with us than all their 
masses." 

The attendant's eyes being unveiled, he saw that Elisha 
was environed by charioteers and horsemen of fire, who 
filled the plain and the mountain around and behind the 
Syrians. 

At Elisha's prayer, the latter were to a man smitten with 
blindness. As they groped about, thus each for his neigh- 
bor, Elisha went boldly up to the leaders and offered to lead 
them. He did guide them, they huddling together to feel 
and hear one another, in their affliction, if they could not 
see. The prophet conducted the whole force, man and 
horse, over the Samarian country to the army of Israel, where 
he restored them sight as suddenly as it had been removed. 
They were all made prisoners, for, at Elisha's wish they 
were spared. Such an act of generosity and the fear all felt 



ELISHA. 227 

of a man of such power prevented any more contests that 
year. 

But th<j next season King Benhadad of Syria made so im- 
mense an irruption that he drove all the Israelites from the 
open country into the walled towns. The fields were un- 
cultivated, of course, and a great famine fell on the land. 
In Samaria, the capital city where the most provision had 
beea laid up, the want of food was so great that the head of 
a dead horse sold for eighty pieces of silver. People even 
ate the corpses of their own blood, slain sons and fathers, 
starved wive3 and daughters. It was horrible. 

Elisha had incurred the enmity of the king because he 
had given counsel, really wise, but unfathomable to the royal 
mind, which advice had led to the troops being beseiged 
instead of encountering the foe in the field. A man was 
sent to kill him but he made him return to the king to say : 
" Hold your murderous project, which I have divined. For 
the sake of the suffering people, heaven has decreed that, 
so plenty shall be the eatables to-morrow, flour of the finest 
and picked barley shall go a begging." 

The king was tempted to believe, for he knew how truth- 
ful the prophet was, but all his court laughed, and one lord 
said : " Such a wonder might be, if windows were to open 
in the sky and grain fall through." For which doubt, Eli- 
sha said : You shall see this plenty, but shall not partake. 

That same afternoon, Elisha's old servant Gehazi, and 
three other lepers, were sitting in the shadow of one of 
the two tall towers flanking the great gate, and bewailing 
their fate. 

" Brothers in affliction," said Gehazi ; " how foolish of 
us to sit here till we die, in the way of the soldiers. If 
we enter the city and beg, what can we hope to get in such 
a famine ? If we were let work we might hope for some- 
thing, but who will let a leper touch his tools. So then, 



228 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

if we stay here we die — if we go to our quarter, we die as 
well ; let us act the brave man's part. Just outside the 
wall, are Syrians dead, killed in the sortie we made three 
days since. From them we will get the arms. In the dark, 
we will fall upon the enemy's outposts, and fight to be 
killed. I'm a-weary of this life, and I pray too often for 
death not to embrace it now." 
" Good, good," said the rest. 

At twilight, therefore, after having informed their coun- 
trymen on the walls of their intention so that they should 
not be shot at for deserters they were let out of the gate. 
They took each a sword from the corpses outside, crept 
stealthily on the hostile lines. They saw the fires alight, 
but the sentinels were no where to be seen. The four went 
on. All looked deserted. They moved forward less cau- 
tiously, not a challenge did they hear, not a man did they 
see. They had entered the camp. Arms, armour cloths 
and tents were without owners. Not a soul was to be seen. 

For a visitation had come upon the host. They had heard 
in the wind a sound as of a great army dashing upon them 
with beating of hoofs and whirring of chariot wheels. They 
saw nothing, bnt that made them the more awfully astonish- 
ed. They were ready to die for fear and, on some show- 
ing the lead, they leaped upon horses and camels and 
pack-mules, flinging aside everything that could impede 
their flight, the entire force rode and ran from the encamp- 
ment. 

" It's the allies of Israel !" cried they, " the Hittites and 
Egyptians are up in arms to make us raise the seige. Away 
all, for life !" 

The lepers penetrated to the farthermost tent of the aban- 
doned camp and made sure it was theirs. They entered 
the general's tent and ate and drank to their hearts content, 
then they took away and buried the gold and silver vessels. 



ELISHA. 229 

■ But," said Gehazi, " let us not be so avaricious. I was 
punished for that sin. This is a day of too good tidings 
for us to hold our peace Let us not wait till morning either, 
but hurry back and have our countrymen make sure of the 
immense prize. 

" For the sake of the women and children, let us haste," 
said another. 

The four lepers ran back to the city. The gatekeepers 
would not believe them. They gained audience of the King. 

" If your story be true," said he, "it must be only a strata- 
gem of the Syrians. They know how badly we are off for 
food, and they want to entice us out from behind our defences 
to defeat us in their camp." 

But the srake was so great, that any risk whatever was 
as nothing. The over prudent monarch, nevertheless, would 
only consent that some trusty men should take a couple of 
chariots with the best horses among the poor famished 
animals left in the royal stables. These went out to scout, 
and reported at daybreak that they had reached the fugitives 
far beyond the camp, and that the whole line of their flight 
was strewn with camp equipage and weapons that had been 
cast away. Therefore the gates were thrown open at their 
widest and out rushed the hungry people. All the gather- 
ings of the captured graineries and farmhouses were in the 
camp, so that, ia truth, wheat, corn, and other grains were 
over abundant. 

The lord who had so laughed at the now-evident truth 
being possible to the Almighty, was appointed to oversee 
those returning from the camp, and prevent the people re- 
taining the treasures which were to go to the crown. He, 
indeed, as Elisha had said, saw the plenty, for the long 
train extended thirty abreast from the camp to the gates, 
every man's back laden, every mouth full, and all arms 
clasping something. But he did not partake of the wind- 



230 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

fall, for the throng crowded through the gates so eagerly to 
bear nourishment to the dear ones nearly perishing at 
home, that he was crushed under foot and trodden to 
death. 

Elisha, on departing to Damascus, told the Shunamite 
woman, of whom he had recuscitated the son, to travel 
with her family out of the country as there was to be a 
famine of seven years' duration to scourge the land, which 
was black with iniquity. She obeyed believingly and 
dwelt all that time in the kingdom of the Philistines. 

Meanwhile Benhadad had fallen ill, and he, on learning 
that the prophet who had foretold his plans of war among 
so many other verified prophecies, was in his capital, sent 
his favorite general and companion Hazael to ask him his 
fate. Hazael took with him forty camels loaded with pres- 
ents for Elisha. 

" Your son King Benhadad has sent me to you, man of 
heaven to inquire if he must die of his ailment." 

" Are you not Hazael?" 

" Yes." 

" Elijah my foregoer anointed you, did he not ?" 

" Yes, my master," returned the Syrian, " and still I am 
not king yet !" 

" You will be, for the Lord has decreed it, for the pun- 
ishment of Israel. Yes, you shall prevail against that sin- 
ful nation," said Elisha, with tears in his aged eyes, " you 
shall fire their strongholds and slay their } r oung men with 
the sword in the field and their women in the keeps." 

"1,1?" repeated Hazael surprised, " is your servant a 
dog to do such evil ? Do not say it, master." 

" It is heaven's will. You will be king over Syria. But 
tell Benhadad that his disease will not be his death. Nor 
will it, but still — this is but a prevarication, for he is short- 
ly to die." 



ELISHA. 231 

Hazael started, turned pale and looked at the speaker. 

"He dies within four-and-twenty hours," repeated Elisha, 
" but nevertheless you are to tell him : ' you will not die of 
your disease.' " 

King Benhadad was greatly joyed at the news, but the 
next day, as he slept, Hazael smothered him with a wet 
cloth which prevented any suspicions of having murdered 
him alighting on him. and usurped the throne. And, as 
Elisha had known, the wars he waged against Israel were 
cruel beyond description, so that at length, when the Israel- 
ites were relieved of his onslaughts, they could only 
muster ten thousand footmen, fifty horsemen, and but ten 
war-chariots. In this calamity, the then monarch of Israel 
came to consult with Elisha, who was on the sickbed on 
which ere long he was to die. King Joash entered his 
chamber weeping and described the nation's distress. 

" We are fallen so low in the dust," said he, " that all 
around us they make a mock of us and almost laugh us into 
believing we are not the Lord's chosen. Bat I, for one, 
still hope, deep as our grievances are." 

" You are right, my son. Take bow and arrows." 

The king called a servant who gave him a quiver and a 
strung bow. Elisha put his aged hands on the king's much 
younger ones. 

" Open the window towards the east," said he, " and 
shoot. It shall be the arrow of heaven's deliverance of 
you from Syria. The news will come before a great while 
that relentless King Hazael no longer governs Syria. He is 
dead. Now, strike the floor with the arrows." 

The monarch held the bunch of arrows in his hand, and 
he smote the trampled earthern floor with them three 
times. 

" Will that suffice, father ?" asked he, stopping. 

" You should have continued till I spoke. As it is you 



c 232 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

shall only inflict three mighty blows on the Syrians who 
else would have been utterly destroyed." 

And indeed, Hazael was dead, and Benhadad his son, who 
succeeded him, was as much less a warrior than he that, in 
three successful campaigns, King Joash recovered the ter- 
ritory lost from Israel in other days. 

Elisha died. 

A year after his death, the Moabites made an inroad and 
had a fight with some villagers, who killed one of their par- 
ty. They would not leave him above ground as prey to the 
jackals and other beasts, especially as they had time before 
them and they, finding a sepulchre near at hand, deter- 
mined to inter their fallen comrade therein. But to their 
amazement, if not terror, the corpse they had let down with 
ropes came to life on touching the bones of some one entomb- 
ed there, and he called to be pulled up. It was the grave 
of Elisha the Prophet, working a miracle after his death with 
his lifeless bones. 

So have men, dead in soul, been restored to the holy life 
of divine love and heavenly bliss, by accidental contact with 
the imperishable remains of a great man, great by goodness. 
" The righteous is an everlasting fountain, he shall never be 
removed. His memory is blessed." 



MORDECAI. 233 



MORDEGAL 



When the Jewish people, by almost continuous progress 
to all that ill becomes the godly, had brought their punish- 
ment face to face with them, it was indeed an hour so 
dark and lowering that it seemed impossible that even the 
most hardened heart should be able to remain impenitent. 

The Chaldeans of King Nebuchadnezzar had returned from 
their rebuke of the Egyptians, who had made a diversion 
in favor of the Hebrews, and had resumed their two years 
close seige of the doomed city. They were upon all the 
other hills around those on which Jerusalem was seated 
and their engines of war and battering-rams encircled 
the walls within their lines again. The prophesied time 
appeared to have come, when the heavens should be 
bright, true, but of the brightness of superfically shining, 
valueless because hopeless brass, and the ground beneath 
their eyes, of iron, a pavement of spear-points and sword- 
blades, steel caps and visored helmets. 

Many hundreds had died during the seige of wounds from 
stones, arrows and the darts from the machines. Others 
had been cut down in forming a wall of life to the storming 
parties attempting to enter at breaches, while their comrades 
built up an inner one behind them. Tens after tens had been 
slain on the walls during the long night watches by deadly 
marksmen who had crept up to the edge of the wide ditch, 
on whose muddy bloody surface floated corpses. The un- 



234 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

wearied and unweakened foe had punished the city forces 
greatly in every one of the sorties they made at unexpected 
hours, and the javelin heads drank blood and the battle-axes 
devoured flesh under the starless heavens as under the sun- 
ny sky, by moon or in storm. Tall towers had been erected 
opposite low parts of the wall, to be filled with archers and 
command the interior, and the besieged had been compelled 
to construct similar turrets of timber against these, till 
both series ot confronting galleries had risen to a dan- 
gerous height, the Chaldeans had suddenly cut theirs down 
so as to pile up all the broken stages under the other. 
This heap of shivered wood, dry as hay, from long exposure 
to wind and heat had been kindled by them so that the 
flames darting up had caught the scaffolding of the Jews, 
who were thus compelled to leap down, in armor as they 
were, or perish in the smoke. 

The women and children who mourned unceasingly, 
were not only dying by broken hearts but by a pestilence 
from the unburied, which the insufficiently fed had to live 
amid. 

The defenders lessened in number daily : not so great 
a loss though, in one way, for their munitions were 
nearly expended ; the millstones, useless, for where was 
there corn to bruise ? were already hurled by piecemeal 
over at the obstinate assailants. Iron was more precious 
than gold and in many cases, in place of the steel head 
broken off, lances had their ends hardened by fire into 
a point. The men who rushed to the threatened spot at the 
blare of the trumpets were only half clad in incomplete 
panoplies, the links in the chained hauberks being dented 
and the plates of the solid pieces being battered and 
nicked ; there was no time for burnishing of steel and pol- 
ishing of brass, in these days when the enemy gave hardly 
enough leisure for the allowance of thick water and pit- 



MORDECAI. 235 

tance of bran bread of the dust of the scraped out grana* 
ries to be hurriedly devoured. 

Starvation was the worst of all, for it subdued all that 
was yet good in the irreligious men. In the early days of 
the long, long beleaguerment of the Holy City, the soldiers, 
with a kiss to their children, a smile to their wives, had 
hastened without a regret almost to do their duty at the 
outpost, but now smiles were vanished and the kindest- 
hearted father hardly dared let his hungry teeth approach 
so nearly the wasted cheek of his darlings. The awful 
words of ages gone by had become verified, as God's words 
always must do. The youth of tenderest heart had an eye 
that turned evilly on his younger brother, his dry tongue 
hideously licking his parched lips as he saw the thin blood 
still slowly throb in the veins that stood out like cords on 
the forehead faded and famished. And the woman, so 
gentle and delicate and so far from a thing of earth as to 
hardly dare to venture the arched sole of her tiny foot on 
the rude ground, glared with the ravenous eye of a tigress 
on lambs, on her dear husband, her daughter, her son and 
on the poor little babe smiling vainly as if it, though in its 
perfect innocence, was nevertheless affected by the horrors 
around and about. 

The horrors, so real and so clearly presented as to fill men's 
eyes with giddiness and force their visions to fancy further 
terrors, which made life hang in doubt all the time. Day 
and night, sighs and prayers went up, but still perversely 
to powerless idols or to the sun and stars alone, impotent 
as the earth they implored from, for, — even while the suffer- 
ers endured the judgments of the creator of all — if they 
would blindly see only the feeble creations and not this 
ineffable glory beyond. 

Thence, the remaining soldiers fought mechanically, their 
bleeding, shoeless feet ran less eagerly to the fray, in which 



236 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

their scarred and fleshless arms less vigorously plied the 
hacked and bent, blunt and pointless weapons. Fear, in- 
comprehensible but all the more overpowering by that 
reason, tilled every breast so that scarcely one in five score 
could sleep an hour away uubrokenly, the least sound making 
them nervously start. So awfully did this dull dread, more 
poignant than human harms, weigh upon them that the worn 
out fighting men begged for the grand assault, daily threat- 
ened, and almost rejoiced sicklily when they heard a thou- 
sand war trumpets sound out the charge along the environ- 
ing lines. 

The enemy, who had had the whole country and its pro- 
ducts to live upon, and being without families, whose tor- 
ments so bowed parents with the grief they cannot lessen, 
were in the highest spirits, and especially enraged that such 
shadows of men had so long resisted their strength, skill 
and swarms. 

They had levelled the walls by a dozen huge rams into 
so wide a gap that either to fill it up or defend it was 
nearly impossible. A large body of the garrison had been 
placed here, and more would have rallied to it, but that the 
Chaldeans — at the same time that a long, broad train of 
stormers rushed into the opening — began attacks on fifty 
other weak points of the defenders, and gave the inferior 
power more than enough of employment. The moment 
that the column had made an entrance, those of their rear 
who were not pouring in volleys of stones and leaden and 
iron balls from slings, and showers of darts and arrows, 
began to make a passage over the battered-down masonry 
through which the pioneers had been forced to clamber. 
When they had fashioned a passable road, they gave a loud 
shout as a signal, when a whole line of three-horse-chariots, 
holding seven men each, in readiness in the advance of the 
camp, now flew towards the city, entering by the break 



MORDECAI. 237 

and spreading all over, every street and lane that could be 
travelled ringing with the flinty clatter of the unironed 
hoofs. 

A canopy of smoke hung over the city, supported by 
innumerable columns of the same, for fire had completed 
the destruction which steel had begun. 

Amid fierce war-cries in strange tongues, weak respon- 
sive shouts, screams and death-groans, the clash of weap- 
ons and the hiss of fire, fell Jerusalem to all but utter ruin. 

The Jewish King and a considerable body broke down the 
walls from within, after they had seen their palaces sharing 
the same fate as the people's houses, for the firebrands were 
flung into everywhere from the meanest dwelling to the Tem- 
ple itself, and endeavored to make an escape over the plain, 
but the remainder of the Chaldeans, in their encampment, 
cut off their retreat and easily captured them, from most of 
these being loaded with their choicest and most precious 
goods. 

Among the unfortunate captives taken away from their city 
laid in ashes and blood, was a young boy and a young girl, 
cousins, whose relations and parents had died during the 
seige or in the final assault. He was named Mordecai, she 
Esther. They had been set apart by a Persian auxiliary of 
Nebuchadnezzar with other prisoners composing a portion 
of his share of the spoil, and were brought into his own 
country. 

Mordecai was a child of two of the few who had pursued 
the right path, who had not scoffed or doubted the words . 
of the true prophets and who had never let images be set 
up for worship in their own dwellings, or let themselves 
pay devotions to the many in the streets and in temples. 
Among the defiled, they had remained pure, and their faith 
had only been strengthened day by day by the fulfilment 
of the heaven-given prophecies under their believing 



238 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

through saddened eyes. Mordecai himself had the ancient 
words of promise deeply engraven on his } r outhful mind 
and in his ears they sounded constantly as if everlastingly 
breathed by an eternal voice. 

"If, while those that are left of you in the land of your 
enemies, pining away for their iniquity, shall confess it to 
the Lord of their fathers and their hearts be humbled and 
they accept the punishment of their wrong-doing. He will 
remember the convenant, and restore the captives of Israel 
who shall dwell once again in the midst of a happier Jeru- 
salum whose streets shall be filled with the aged, so old 
as to be every one staff in hand, and with the merry boys 
and girls without the shadows of a care." 

With religious principles well grounded, Mordecai natu- 
rally prospered even in the sad condition of his early days. 
He pleased his master so greatly that he was presented with 
his freedom, and, in two or three years afterwards had 
amassed no inconsiderable sum of money in a commerce 
of his own. He applied his newly acquired fortune to 
purchase liberty for his cousin Esther, whom he had kept 
watch over and whom he now adopted to be treated as if, 
their ages apart, she were his daughter. 

Esther grew up to be as fair as she was good and wise 
under the teachings cf her relation, whose leisure hours, 
snatched from a trade that made him a thriving merchant, 
were happily spent tutoring the beautiful child. So does a 
charitable act repay itself from the very first commence- 
ment of it. The large price Mordecai. had paid for his 
cousin's manumission was so much loss to him as far as 
money repayment went, but the bright eyes, the joyous 
face, the gracefulness of her who loved him, for his kind- 
ness and accomplishment of duty, next to heaven, far out- 
weighed the thoughts which might have prevailed with a 
mercenary man. 



MORDECAI. 239 

Now it came to pass in the days of King Ahasuerus, who 
had only been three years on the throne of the great king- 
dom of the hundred and thirty countries which extended • 
from India to Ethiopia, that he had a festival. To it were 
invited and came all the princes and chief nobles, whom he 
entertained for a hundred days, displaying, to their dazzled 
eyes, all the pomp of his palace of Shushan. They gazed on 
the treasures, endless and innumerable, contained in lofty 
chambers hung with brilliant tapestry of all colors and of 
finest material, and having tessellated floors of variegated 
marble, and they drank and ate out of gold and silver dishes 
and cups. 

King Ahasuerus, excited by wine, as a crowning gem of 
his collection, commanded several of his chamberlains to 
transmit his orders to Queen Vashti. These were for her 
to apparel herself in her richest and to wear her most 
splendid crown, so as to gild refined gold, that is to try to 
adorn her inconceivable beauty. But she, haughty and not 
caring to present herself as a mere ornament to the gaze 
even of princes, ungraciously refused to appear in any 
guise whatever to the sight-seers. 

The monarch was enraged at this, and swore to punish 
one who had scorned his mandate, not through modesty 
(which would have added a jewel, more valuable than all 
the others, to her loveliness), but by an arrogance that no 
sovereign could brook. 

So he broke up the revelry instantly, and called the coun- 
cil together of the seven high princes of the realm, before 
whom he laid his grievance, asking if anything could be 
lawfully done against Queen Yashti. The chief counsellor 
answered that no law would reach her as it was, but that 
such conduct ought to be punished. For, if the ladies 
throughout the dominion learnt that the queen was permit- 
ted with impunity to indulge in scorn and haughtiness to- 



240 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

wards not only her consort, but the first dignitaries and 
people, there would be no such thing kept alive except by 
the few as loving devotion and submission to husbands. 

" If it please the king," therefore, continued the adviser, " to 
prevent so much threatened contempt and anger which 
would lead to most serious heartburnings, let him proclaim 
a royal commandment to be one of the unalterable laws 
of the Medes and Persians, that never more shall Queen 
Vashti be let enter the royal presence, and that her place 
shall be vacant to be filled at the king's pleasure." 

The decree was welcome to the sovereign and it was is- 
sued accordingly. The queen was banished. But after a 
time, when his wrath had been appeased, King Ahasuerus, 
in his loneliness, remembered his exiled wife for only her 
pleasant acts and not for her evil ones, and he was on the 
point of trying to restore her, in spite of the law being im- 
mutable. His consellors who dreaded the return to favor 
of one who would surely be avenged on them, united their 
brains to devise a counterplot. 

" Our lord the king," said they, one day appearing before 
him, "your servants have seen with sorrow a cloud on your 
once happy face. It must be caused by the void that even 
the removal of a wicked woman will leave. It is not right 
that the king of such an immense territory should be alone 
when he has multitudes of the fair within his reach. Let 
all the young girls throughout the realm be made to come 
before the throne, so that your majesty may choose a com- 
panion. We have spoken. Have we spoken well." 

" The council has well spoken," returned Ahasuerus glad- 
ly ; " let the preparations commence immediately." 

It was done. For many days all the favorites, fair child- 
ren, mothers' darlings, in the land were brought to Shushan. 
For two months and more, they passed before the throne in 
review, but none of them delighted him to the extent of 



MORDECAI. 211 

his desring them for a queen. At length the beauties of 
the capital city began to appear. 

Among them was Esther. Mordecai had been compelled 
to let her go, for it was impossible to evade the decree 
He had charged her, however, not to reveal her race, and 
she who had always obeyed him who was both father and 
brother to her, did not do otherwise now. He was so anx- 
ious about her that he walked every day before the house 
of one of the king's chamberlains, which had been set apart 
for the women, so as to have a few words with his cousin. 

Esther, different from the other girls, who, (in the desire 
to please and knowing it had been ordered that nothing 
should be refused them) were not content till the most gor- 
geous robes of brightest colors and loads of jewelry shone 
over them from head to foot, modestly let herself be attired 
in whatever the chamberlain gave her. And yet, unadorned 
her beauty was adorned the most, for the King set his choice 
on her, and to her he threw the handkerchief. So Esther 
the Jewess, was made queen of King Ahasuerus in the 
seventh year of his reign, her humble head being crowned 
by the royal hands themselves. A feast, too, was proclaimed 
to be called Esther's feast, and provinces and capital united 
in a manifestation of joy. 

Of course, as the queen could not act as the obscure girl 
had full liberty to do, she could not visit Mordecai. She 
could not have him come to her, much as she longed for an 
interview. But he, his ideas quickened by the unbearable 
thought of not seeing the endeared one any more except 
by accident, took his plan. 

Along the sides of the wide street which led down from 
the main entrance of the palace, were booths and traders' 
shops, whose customers were the retainers and the attend- 
ants of the royal household. One of these Mordecai bought 
and made into his place of business, and, to his joy, the 
11 



242 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

crowd of be-laced servitors were often before his stall,, 
gazing at the silk stuffs, rare shawls and scarfs, jewelled 
slippers, pipes and other articles of his stock-in-trade which 
he displayed in the front of his place. His heart leaped as 
he often heard them praise amid their gossip the Queen 
Esther so good, so beautiful. Little did any of them sus- 
pect that the Hebrew who stood in the doorway idly re- 
garding the sky or the magnificent steps and front of the 
palace, was really drinking in the words which came from 
the source of all his happiness. 

In this new position of his, he saw her pass every fine 
day, and, after she had by chance recognized him, her eyes 
stealthily were flung his way, and he was merry of heart 
all the day for the smile she gave for him. 

So time passed with Mordecai at the King's gate. 

One night as he was trying to get to sleep (he lived in 
his little booth to guard his valuable merchandise.) he heard 
two men softly walking down the dark avenue from the 
palace. That was a strange thing as it was, and he, fearing 
they were discharged servants or some of the evil disposed 
who lurked about the palace to execute wicked offices, 
went cautiously to the little door in the rear of his stall and 
was about to go out, when they suddenly slipped in between 
his and the neighbourieg house and hardly gave him time 
to draw back. There they stopped in the shadow within 
arm's reach of him, but utterly unconscious of that. In a low 
tone, but audible to him, the two conspirators, for such they 
were, unfolded a murderous design which they had upon 
the life of Ahasuerus. They were two of the royal cham- 
berlains and these were often near enough to the King to 
carry out their object. 

Mordecai hardly awaited the dawn but at the first break- 
ing hastened to bear a scroll in Hebrew to the palace to be 
given as early as possible to Queen Esther. It was the 



MORDECAI. 243 

dialogue which he had heard during the night, and which 
he had sat up to write. She communicated the information to 
her husband, and he set inquiries afoot. The plotters were 
found guilty and hanged. Ahasuerus was not slow to show 
his gratitude to Esther for having saved his life. 

The favorite of King Ahasuerus among his courtiers was 
one Haman, whom he advanced grade by grade till he was 
placed even above the princes of the blood. Haman never 
traveled about the city without being slavishly reverenced 
as if lie were the sovereign himself. Some of his servants 
noticed that, whenever their train went down the street 
from the palace amid the general cheering and waving of 
turbans and shawls and low bows, one shopkeeper either 
pretended to be busily examining his wares at the moment 
of Hainan's passing, or boldly stood in his doorway, with 
his form upright. Some of them spoke to him and asked 
him his reason, to which he replied that Haman was a man 
unworthy of his station and of the respect due to its proper 
tenant and that he, besides, had dreadfully oppressed his 
(Mordecai's) poor fellow countrymen in Adalia by imposi- 
tion of heavy taxes which gave them no chance of fair 
trade against the Persians. To such an unjust, rapacious 
vulture, because he was in the eagle's nest and plumed like 
a peacock, he would never bend the neck or the knee. 

When Haman was told of this, he felt all his evil nature 
stirred up against the man who had dared to speak out 
honestly against him, but so proud was he that he deemed 
it beneath him to avenge the indignity on one man alone 
though that one man was the only offender. His black 
heart was not content with less than a massacre of all the 
Jews, of which people he had learned Mordecai was, 
throughout the entire realm. 

" My lord," said he as soon as he procured audience ot 
the king, which was an easy matter for him to do, li my 



244 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

lord, there is a certain race dispersed in your vast domin- 
ions who are a vein of ruin to them, seeing they do not 
keep the royal laws or any but their own peculiar ones. 
Now that we can destroy them, we had better lose no time 
and do it, for a month or a year later, they may be up in 
arms against us." 

Ahasuerus consented to the plan, relying wholly on the 
evil adviser, and ten thousand silver pieces were paid out 
for the hire of the assassins whom Hainan sent into every 
division of the country, and, ere long, when they had se- 
cured all the weapons and filled the forts, a proclamation 
was made for all to be ready for the slaughter by a certain 
day. While the king feasted with his favorite, the people, 
Jews and others, were in great emotion. The former were 
almost thunder stricken at an edict so barbarous against 
them, whose old men and young were as innocent of wrong- 
ful thought against the nation as the women and children 
who were also sentenced to death. The others were 
grieved in the most part, too, for they were no wise 
eager to harm people who had been the best of neighbors 
to them. In the cities, like Shushan the capital, where 
there was a large proportion of the doomed ones, the whole 
population was greatly perplexed. 

Like others Mordecai had closed his shop, torn off his 
gayer dress, donned sackcloth and powdered his bare head 
with ashes, and bewailed the unrighteous judgment even be- 
fore the palace entrance. There he was seen by Queen 
Esther, and she sent out rich clothing to him and prayed 
him to remove his mourning habits for that. But he would 
not do it. 

Esther, who never in the least paid attention to the affairs 
of the realm, had, singularly enough, remained in the fullest 
ignorance of the decree against her countrymen. She, unable 
to account for a grief so intense in her cousin, sent out one 



MORDECAI. 245 

of her attendants to question the mourner. He would only 
acquaint her, then he said, in a private interview with her. 
This she gave readily, and he in a cloak of proper colors be- 
ing accepted by him (for mourning of any kind was not al- 
lowed in the precincts of the palace unless by special order), 
was ushered into her presence. 

They dared not kiss nor speak in a high tone for fear that 
eyes and ears might be on them. 

Mordecai told her all, showed her a copy of the decree, 
and begged her for the sake of God, who had perhaps elevat- 
ed her for this very hour and for the sake of the people so 
mercilessly and unreasonably sentenced, to go to King Ahas- 
uerus and beg a reversion of the order or a pardon. 

" But, Mordecai," said she, her eyes streaming with tears 
at the thought of the awful doom suspended over her 
kindred, "everybody knows that whoever, man or woman, 
high or low, ventures into the inner court without being 
summoned by the king, breaks the law and must die. 
The king alone can save them by letting them touch his 
golden sceptre of state. 

" Ah but, Esther," said Mordecai, not understanding hei, 
" beware if you let your head be uplifted when all of your 
kin are lowered to the dust. On you and yours will fall the 
blood whose spilling you might have prevented. Try, try 
all means to prevent such a crime. Heaven only knows if 
you have not been exalted for this same purpose." 

11 Mordecai," said Esther sorrowfully, " I never thought 
that my own cousin, he who has been often enough with me 
to know me a little, would so misjudge me. Do you fancy 
I would hold my one life above the many more precious 
ones. Go and tell all our countrymen in the city to fast 
for three days, and I and all my maids will do the same. 
Then will I go to the king, whom I have not seen for a 



246 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

nonth, and break the law. If I live you live. If I perish, 
•il die." 

On the third day, Esther had herself attired in her queen's 
robes and boldly entered the inner court of the palace, at the 
end opposed to the entrance of which sat the king on his 
throne. He started on seeing her, and immediately held out 
to her his golden sceptre. She hastened to touch its tip. 

" What do you wish, my fair Queen ? what is there that I 
will not give you even to half my kingdom." 

" I only desire, my good lord," answered Esther, " that your 
majesty and Haman may come to the banquet I give to-mor- 
row night." 

" That is no request, Esther. Most assuredly we would 
have gone, without your coming here to me. I do not con- 
sider that your desire. Remember, if there is any favor 
you conceive it is already granted, even to half my kingdom. 
I have said it." 

When Haman heard from the king that Queen Esther, had 
personally invited him to a feast, he could not contain him- 
self for joy. When he reached his mansion he called his 
wife, children and friends around him in an entertainment. 
During it he enlarged upon his already lofty and magnifi- 
cient position, and vaunted of his having been upreared over 
all the princes in the realm. 

" And to-morrow night, I go to feast with the king and 
queen alone, by the latter's express invitation. I have only 
one care in the world. There is that wretch Mordecai by 
the palace gates yet, and he let me pass by without moving 
a muscle unless it was to show his scorn of me. I cannot 
bear it." 

" Nonsense," said one of his friends, " the time is near at 
hand when not one of the cursed breed will be left to look 
contemptuously on any one." 



MORDECAI. 247 

" True, and yet my patience is severely tried by the sight 
of this insolent fellow." 

" Then," said his wife. " why not have a very high gal- 
lows set up at the end of our large garden. Have it high 
enough to tower over the trees. You can see it from these 
windows and all the city will have it before their eyes. 
Not one will dare to do anything against you under that 
terror." 

" Well said, dear wife," said Hainan joyfully, " I can go 
to the banquet with a light heart now." 

On that night, while Esther was praying (like Mordecai) 
that all would be well, and while Hainan was superintend- 
ing the erection of a gibbet, King Ahasuerus was restless 
and in vain sought sleep. Asa last resort, he had one of 
the scribes bring from the hall of records the chronicles of 
the royal deeds, and try to read him to slumber. It hap- 
pened that the first chapter turned up was the beginning 
of the account of the conspiracy which had been defeated 
by Mordecai's having overheard the plotters. 

"' Yes," said Ahasuerus, remembering, " Queen Esther in- 
formed me. She had been told of it by — " 

" Mordecai a Jew, my lord, who had surprised the trea- 
sonable conversation and who, instead of trying to get 
money from them, as he might have done, communicated 
the valuable secret to her majesty and thus saved my 
lord's treasured life." 

" By the bye, what reward did this Jew receive ?" asked 
the king. 

" Nothing, my lord, no reward at all," returned the scribe, 
" unless her majesty the queen gave him one." 

" Ah, this is how princes' carelessness makes them be ac- 
cused of ingratitude and weakens devotion to the state. 
Remind me in the morning of this matter. You need read 
no more, but go. I shall sleep now, I think." 



248 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

The first to enter the king's presence at his levee was the 
premier, Hamaii. He found Ahasuerus deeply pondering 
over something. 

" Ham an, you are a sound adviser," said the monarch, 
looking up with a perplexed air, " what ought to be done 
to the man to whom the king owes much and wishes to 
honor ?" 

The minister considered a moment. "Who could the 
king wish to honor but himself, Haman ? To whom did he 
owe much except him ? So he believed this was merely an 
ingenious mode of making him state his own price. His 
vanity tempted him on to ask the most. 

" Your majesty can imagine the fitting recompense better 
than I," answered he, " but if my opinion is really request- 
ed, I should say, this should be done. Let the person to 
be favored be dressed in the robes of royalty themselves, 
be set upon the king's own horse, and be escorted through 
the streets, with heralds going before him to proclaim : 
" This is the man to whom King Ahasuerus delights to 
show honor and his gratitude I" 

" Excellent !" said the monarch, clapping his hands, " it 
shall be done forthwith precisely as you say. Go you and 
take my coronation robes, and all except the crown and 
sceptre, have my favorite horse led from the stables richly 
caparisoned, collect a large body of my own body-guard 
for escort, with heralds. With them all go to the houso 
of-" 

Haman smiled to himself and thought ; " To the house of 
Haman," but Ahasuerus, not in the least suspecting his fa- 
vorite's idea, added : 

" Of one Mordecai, a Jew, who has a little house on the 
avenue before the palace. He can be easily found." 

" Too easily found," muttered the mortified minister, 
about to turn away. M Ah, the Jew who was in the con- 



MORDECAI. 249 

spiracy against your majesty's life and who betrayed his 
companions to save himself. I believe, was he not? I do 
not remember exactly." 

"You do not, that is true," said the sovereign a little 
sharply. " No such a thing. I was reading last night of all. 
The traitors confessed. He had nothing at all to do with it, 
except what every good subject and honest man might 
have properly. I have been grossly thankless to him. 
Haste to oversee my gratitude to him." 

Thus was Haman the proud and distinguished, compell- 
ed undesignedly to do the utmost honor to the lowly Mor- 
decai whom he so deeply hated. With a heart almost broke 
with malice, Haman went to his house that afternoon, 
furious at having had to lead the procession of glorifica- 
tion to his enemy. In vain did his wife and friends try to 
console him for some hours. At length, his retinue formed 
their troop at his door ready to conduct him to the palace 
to Queen Esther's banquet. His wife assured him that all 
would be well now, as he had only to ask for a tenant for his 
gallows now finished. 

Haman was received the same as ever by the King and 
Queen, and his spirits revived under the influence of their 
familiarity with him and of the wine. At the first opportuni- 
ty he began to speak of a favor he desired of the King. 

" One moment," said the latter quickly, " if you please, 
the lady first. Esther," continued he, turning to his queen, 
" you have a favour to ask and receive of me, now that I am 
reminded of it. What is yours ?" 

"My Lord, if I am beloved of you, grant me as you may 
what T ask most earnestly. Let my life be given me at my 
request, with the lives of my people dear to me." 

Ahasuerus started in surprise, and Haman was astonish- 
ed as well, for neither of them knew the nationality of the 
queen. 

11* 



250 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

" If we had all been sold only to be bond men and women," 
resumed Esther, " I would have said nothing, but ten 
thousand pieces of silver blood money has been paid out 
for all of us to be murdered pitilessly." 

" You ! your people !" exclaimed Ahasuerus. " Who is he 
who has dared to plot evil against my dearly loved consort 
and her kin? where is he ?" 

" My lord, he is at this board. It is Ham an." 

" Haman ! then you are a Jewess !" cried the king start- 
ing up. 

" A Jewess, my lord, which is the only secret I have 
ever kept from your majesty, love for whom it has not 
weakened. My people are the poor, oppressed Jews, as 
guiltless as wronged." 

Haman confused, kept his seat and slmtfdoringly low- 
ered his head. All was over with him, rir'.eed. He was 
hanged on that very same tree he had haJ erected for his 
enemy, and that enemy was given his house, his wealth and 
his station. 

The queen, and Mordecai the new raiiudter, sought to 
have the decree against the Jews reversed. But that could 
not be done, for the laws of the realm were unalterable by 
even the king. 

" But," said Ahasuerus, " this can bo done. I will pub- 
lish a new proclamation which shall give the Jews full per- 
mission to defend themselves, their families and their 
houses, and not to be answerable for any harm they may in 
so doing inflict on my subjects." 

This manifesto was quickly copied out, and sent all over 
the land by messengers on horse, mule and camel. Then 
the Jews held festivals everywhere, calling the time Purim. 
In Shushan, the sentenced people gave a great banquet, at 
which presided Mordecai, clad as became his dignity in 
purple and white robes, and bearing a crown of gold. 



MORDECAI. 251 

Many people became followers of the true faith for fear of 
the Jews. 

When the day of massacre came, the lieutenants and pro- 
vincial officers of the realm, with the royal troops under their 
command, were found to be all on the side of the Jews, for 
they obeyed Mordecai. Hence in a few places only was 
there any fighting, and that by the mercenaries of Haman 
and by such people as had quarrels with the strangers. 
But the latter were victors everywhere. No one ventured 
afterward to show his envy and hatred of the lately re- 
leased people henceforth the foremost, and they prospered 
as they merited for faithfulness, order, and industry. 

Mordecai, till the day of his lamented death, was the 
second in the kingdom, beloved by all the people, rever- 
enced by his race, and preserving a happy peace to them 
all. 



252 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 



DANIEL. 



Among the captives whom Nebuchadnezzar the King of 
Babylon brought away with him after his defeat of the King 
of Judah, were many youths, who were given to an officer 
of, his household, who was to rear them up in the knowledge 
of the Chaldean tongue and of such other things as would 
make them agreeable attendants for the ruler. These were 
so especially cared for that meats and drinks from the royal 
table were sent to the house of this officer. 

At the first meal given them, to which the prisoners, 
allured by the dainties and the viands, gave themselves 
ravenously, all the more from their having expected a harsher 
fate and far coarser fare, four of them asked a private hear- 
ing of the officer, and by one of them, Daniel, put this request 
to him : 

" Sir officer, we earnestly desire that we may not have to 
eat of these dishes — very dainty, no doubt, but not prepared 
nor of the food which our religion permits us to taste. 
Be so kind, therefore, as to let us have something simple, 
any eatable plants plucked from the ground will amply 
suffice." 

The officer had already conceived a deep liking for Daniel, 
and he was willing to grant him any reasonable favor. 

"But, Belteshazzar (as Daniel's new name was,)" said he 
considering, " I dare not permit any such diet. The King 
sends, such and such dishes to keep you in better health. If 
he sees you and your three friends thinner and paler than the 
rest, he will inquire, and whether he finds out or not how 



DANIEL. 253 

it happened, he will be enraged at me, and I will be fortu- 
nate if my head is left on my shoulders. No, I am sorry, 
but the royal orders must be obeyed." 

Persevering, however, Daniel repeated his entreaties and 
said : 

*' Bat give us, your servants, some days' trial on the plain 
fare, and drink only water." 

For ten days, he let the four eat apart from the others, 
and, to his surprise, their faces were rosier and their fig- 
ures fatter than any of the others who, quite otherwise 
from eating simple salads and drinking pure water, had 
been reveling on choice flesh, sweetmeats and luscious 
wines. So, ever afterwards, during the three years that 
the captives were brought up under his charge, nothing 
was set before Daniel and his three friends but what they 
alone desired. 

The end of the time given up for their education passed, 
and the officer brought them all before the king. He ques- 
tioned them one after another, set them in arguments with one 
another, had learned men examine them as well as himself, 
and found none equalled, in knowledge general or special, 
Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The king 
pronounced them severally to be ten times superior in all 
maimer of science to any sage he had in his realm. Great 
favors were poured upon them consequently, and if any- 
thing could have had the power to do so, the captives 
might have forgotten in their easy lives, the homes in Ju- 
dah from which they had been snatched. 

One night, King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, which 
greatly oppressed him. He could not sleep after it ; before 
the dawn he sent off messengers to wake up and conduct 
to him the principal diviners and astrologers. They were 
speedily bowing before him. 



254 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

" Men of years of study," said he, " I have dreamed, and 
I am greatly vexed by the vision." 

They bowed again, and answered : 

" Long live your majesty ! let your servants know what 
the vision was, and its meaning shall be told to you." 

But the king, frown as he might and seek to peer into 
vacancy, was forced to answer : 

" But the picture on my mind, vivid as it was, has van- 
ished. But let me know the signification of it, and what 
gift is there that I shall withhold from you ? Speak, and I 
will honor you." 

Bat the whole of them bowed, lower than before. 

" If we are told the dream, the answer will be forthcom- 
ing, my lord." 

" I have said : The thing has passed from me. But, you 
who only pretend to be wise, hark ye, if you do not find 
out what my dream was and what it portends, by the 
sword of my father, I'll have } T our deceiving carcasses cut 
to pieces and your houses levelled with the dust !" 

" But, great lord, be not angry — tell, tell us the dream — " 

Bat the king sat up in his couch, and his voice shook 
with passion : 

" I know you of old, you wish to gain time. I am a king 
whose word is never repeated. The dream and its inter- 
pretation !" 

" No king that ever ruled ever asked such questions of 
any magician," returned the boldest Chaldean. " No man 
on earth can do it, my lord. Only the gods, who are all 
spirit and not fallible flesh." 

But Nebuchadnezzar would not listen to any among 
them, and had them driven from his presence. His fury 
did not relax there, but he issued his mandate that all the 
learned men should be put to death. The ones who had 






DANIEL. 255 

lately confronted him had prudently concealed themselves 
and the royal guards were disappointed in searching every 
one of their houses. At last, they entered Daniel's resi- 
dence and barely gave him an instant to prepare for death. 

"But, good Captain Anoch," said Daniel to the leader of 
the guard, " why have you broken in here — when you know 
the doors are always open to you and all in the king's live- 
ry ? And why do you purpose my death ?" 

" By order of the king V 

" By order of the king ? What have I done to offend his 
majesty?" 

The captain read the decree. 

"Ah! but captain, do not be too hasty. Lead me to the 
palace and, I pray you, sheath your weapons before any blood 
is spilt." 

No sooner was he before Nebuchadnezzar than he assur- 
ed him that in a little time, he should acquaint him with his 
dream and also with its portension. The delay was granted, 
and while the monarch fretted, Daniel's friends lifted up 
their prayers in unison with his that God would befriend 
them alone among the stranger and prevent the shedding of 
innocent blood. Before the grace besought had expired 
Daniel had the desired secret transmitted to him. Deep and 
heartfelt were his thanks. On the moment he hurried to 
the palace. 

" Belteshazzer," said the sovereign, " you look confident 
it is true. Are you able to make known to me what is en- 
tombed beyond my own view even in my mind ?" 
« " My Lord and master," replied Daniel unfaltering in 
speech : " To be sure, not one of the soothsayers can hope 
to unveil such a secret. But there is a God in heaven who 
is All-wise as He is all in everything. He raaketh known, 
by me, to King Nebachadnezzar, that this is what you saw 
while your august eyes were closed in slumber." 



256 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

And to the amazement of the King, Daniel did indeed 
describe to him that which only he and the God who had 
sent it, had seen under the shroud of sleep. The King 
acknowledged in a surprised tone, as he bowed himself to 
the ground to worship Daniel, that the power which knows 
secrets, alone could reveal this one to him, He did not stop 
there but elevated the Hebrew to a high position, beslowed 
many gifts upon him, ordered an offering of incense to be 
made to him, and appointed him viceroy of the whole prov- 
ince of Babylon and chief over the wise men. Daniel, 
besides, obtained leave of the King to place Shadrach, 
Meshach, and Abednego in stations next under him. 

It was not long after this, that Nebuchadnezzar had the 
idea come to him of setting a new idol up for his people to 
worship. 

So, on the appointed day — by which time all the distin- 
guished men called from different parts of the kingdom, 
had arrived, the long and pompous procession proceeded 
towards the Plain of Dura. There, on a high base, was 
erected the image, covered now with a large cloth. The 
princes of the royal house, the nobility, the officers, the 
judges and other eminent officials where gathered around 
the King, behind them were the soldiers in great number, 
who kept back the immense concourse of people. At the 
signal from the King, who was upraised to a level with the 
figure on a broad platform of wood which was draped with 
scarlet linen, the priests, numbering upwards of three 
hundred, formed a half-circle before the pedestal. As they 
swung their censers, in which burnt substances which 
sent up in volumes, spicy and fragrant smoke, two of the high- 
est removed the cover aud exposed to the eyes of the 
multitude a brilliant statue of pure gold, invaluable, no 
matter what might have been the material, from its exquisite 



DANIEL. 25 1 

moulding, but beyond estimation when composed solid of 
the precious metal. 

Above the shouts of the populace, over whose heads wav- 
ed swords, hats, bright cloths, and open hands, arose the 
tantaras of trumpets of brass and silver, and of horns, the 
clinking of cymbals, the beating of drums and tamborines, 
the thundering of stringed instruments, all to greet the new 
object of veneration. The priests proceded with the dedi- 
cation, chanting hymns of praise to the sound of flutes, sur- 
rounding the idol in three rows of fifty deep, and, with the 
assistance of butchers especially chosen, slew a whole herd 
of cattle and whole flocks of sheep, which, on the altars 
were soon emitting the odor of burning flesh. 

And while the Babylonians were gazing on the golden effi- 
gy, enfolded now and anon by the circling vapor, red and 
light blue, on the white-robed priests, on their monarch, on 
their princes only less gorgeously appareled than he, on the 
army of warriors, with unstained weapons and in panoply 
as bright as the very sun, heralds penetrated their masses 
and, each to his audience after a blast of trumpets to secure 
hearing, proclaimed : 

" Be it known to ye of all nations, races and tongues, that 
Nebuchadnezzar the unequaled king, commands : That, no 
matter when you hear the signal sounds for worship, then 
you shall bow down and worship the image of gold which 
the great ruler has erected. Whoever shall not so do, will 
be burnt alive. So perish all enemies of our peerless lord 
the king !" 

Therefore, whenever the music came upon the ear from 
piping harp, flute, horn, or any of the warning instruments 
of the priests (which they used to designate the times of 
prayer, as bells, unknown then, were used afterwards), ail 
who heard it obeyed the rule. The soldier dismounted from 
his horse, the market-men laid aside their money, the house- 



258 ' THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

wives ceased in what they were doing, the pitcher of water 
and crust of bread was lowered from the mouth, and every- 
where knees bent and prayers went up in honor of the 
cast of gold. 

Some time before this, when Nebuchadnezzar was still 
under the influence of the surprise arising from Daniel's di- 
vination of his forgotten dream, he had lost faith in his 
idols in favor of the Hebrew's God, and he had so far 
shown symptoms of conversion that he had let Daniel try 
to give a proof of the worthlessness of the false priests. 

In a lofty and spacious hall of a huge temple was the 
monstrous statue of Bell, the chief god. The people had 
the custom of bringing tempting dishes of uncooked and 
cooked meats and fruits and setting them on a long table 
before the idol, the belief being that the ponderous image 
devoured them himself. Now Daniel declared that was 
impossible, too plainly impossible, but the king answered : 
Here was the large room closed every night, no one could 
enter because of the priests who lived in the temple and 
who guarded the chamber of worship from profanation, 
and yet the eatables and drinks were vanished in the morn- 
ing. The Hebrew said: Then, the priests must be guilty of 
making away with the offerings, and, as Nebuchadnezzar 
doubted and assured him they were holy men, he only 
asked to be let try them. 

On a given day, the king had all the entrances walled up, 
and when all were out of the chamber of Bel, he had seals 
put on the main doors, giving orders that death should be 
the fate of whoever should touch the wax. A large supply 
of roast meats, sweetmeats and wine had been left within. 
Three days after, the seals, discovered intact, were removed 
in presence of the sovereign. They entered. 

The hall was untenanted save at the farther end where 
towered the vast proportions of the statue. The table, 



DANIEL. 259 

nevertheless, upheld empty dishes alone ; not a drop of 
wine remained in one golden cup, not a shred of flesh or 
crumb of cake was left in the silver dishes. The priests 
smiled in triumph, the king looked convinced, and the wit- 
nesses of what seemed their god's display of power, scarce- 
ly refrained from a shout. Daniel, however, was in no 
wa}' shaken in opinion. He whispered to the king, who 
"for the last time," he said, agreed to his proposition. 

Unknown to any except the monarch, the Jew and the 
servants, sworn to secresy, who did the work, the temple 
floor was strewn an inch thick with fine ashes. The en- 
trances were examined, but the bricks filling them up were 
found undisturbed. The hall was then left to the idol and 
the growing darkness, the table having been set out more 
bountifully than ever before. At early dawn, when hardly 
it was light enough to see, again came Nebuchadnezzar, 
with his adviser, to watch the taking off of the re-affixed 
seals. Only the sovereign and Daniel entered. The former 
glanced first at the table ; by the grey glimmer, the dishes 
were seen to be in disorder and evidently drained and 
clean of contents. 

The kins; turned to Daniel to see him confess his error, 
but the latter, who had carefully surveyed the floor, lifted 
his eyes presently with the joy of one confirmed in his 
supposition. 

" Look, look, my lord !" cried he. 

By the increasing light, reddened by the first streakings 
of the rising sun, they saw that on the fine powder, in 
places near the table where they had not themselves trod, 
were the marks of footsteps. And more, the prints were 
those of the peculiar-shaped sandals restricted to the priest- 
hood. It was clear, accustomed to enter in the night so had 
they come that night, but, afraid to carry lights as on other 
occasions, for fear of the royal guards standing sentry be- 



260 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

neath the hall windows, they had not perceived that they 
were impressing their infamy at every stride to deception 
that they took. 

By following the line of the marks, the door, concealed in 
the thick wall, was also found, and the king was compelled to 
confess that Daniel was wholly in the right. 

He would have had them die on the instant, who had so 
deceived him and was eager to exhibit all the cheat to the 
people without, but Daniel, knowing the power which the 
designing priests must have possessed over the ignorant 
masses, counselled otherwise. He even pleaded for the 
culprits to be pardoned and punished only by being placed 
out side the royal favor. But Nebuchadnezzar, though 
yielding to much of the wisdom of Daniel's advice, deter- 
mined still on depriving the foremost of the sacred officials 
of their places and banishing them to remote portions of 
his kingdom. He had the huge statue upset and chopp- 
ed to pieces, and the jewels which it was studded with, 
and the offerings stored up in the treasury, transfered to 
his own ; an act of scarcely more than just reprisal, foras- 
much as the greater weight of gold and silver and the 
greater quantity of gems had been his own presents. 

So it was done, and Daniel was all the more esteemed by 
those to whom the secret of Bel's Temple was imparted. 

The same banished priests had, by underhand means, 
recovered favor, returned, and were now officiating in 
the worship of the new idol. Though, reinstated, they had 
not forgotten their thirst of revenge on Daniel. They 
knew how firmly he was attached to his own faith, and on 
that ground alone — for he was above suspicion as to hon- 
esty and honor — could they hope to ruin him. But he was 
too careful to be entrapped by them, and as they never 
could see him at the hours of prayer, for he always retired 
to his private rooms then, they could bring no accusation 



MORDECAI. 261 

against him. Unable to injure him directly, they thought 
to pierce him through his friends. Knowing his affection 
for his immediate subordinates, Shadrach and his two fel- 
lows, they spied them in all their acts. They discovered 
more than they had desired, even. 

One morning, they chose three of themselves to repre- 
sent them and appeared before the king. 

" My lord," said they, " has made a decree that all 
throughout his boundless and excellently-governed realm, 
shall worship his splendid golden image, under penalty of a 
death by fire. Now, there are three of the captives taken 
by our warlike master in his success over Jerusalem, who 
have in no wise regarded his solemn statutes. Tbey do 
not offer to your gods nor bend the knee to your image.' ' 

The monarch was in fury at the contempt, and as soon as 
he had learnt that the accused were Daniel's three friends, 
he gave his signet ring to the nearest officer and had the 
Hebrew r s dragged before him. They were not in the least 
daunted, though they saw in their complainants, men, who 
they w T ere well aware were deadly enemies of their superior. 

" Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, is it true that you 
neither serve our gods nor worship the golden one I have 
lately had set up ?" 

They bowed a " yes." 

The king controlled his passion, for he could not help 
remembering how faithfully these captives had accomplish- 
ed the duties of their posts, nor help feeling more grateful 
to them than to their base accusers. 

" It is true ? So be it. I pardon." 

The priests looked blank and were on the point of break- 
ing forth in anger and disappointment, but that Nebuchad- 
nezzar waved them into silence. 

" Shadrach, and you with him, hear me. I am not harsh 
to true servants, as you have been. If, when yon hear the 



262 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

signals, you do worship, like ourselves, the image I have 
made, all will be well." 

They shook their heads. 

" ButT cried he sternly, " if you refuse, that same hour 
you shall be flung into the fiercest flames of the hottest fire, 
and we shall see what God can deliver you." 

With one voice the three responded : 

" We cannot do that, oh, king !" 

And Shadrach went on alone : 

" My lord, we trust in our God, who can deliver us from 
your mighty power, your massive prisons, from your armed 
men, from your terrible pyres. We know His power. 
There is none in idols : thej 7 are but so much metal, wood 
or stone, which cannot see, hear, speak, even move without 
the hand of man. Our God is the true, the ever-living 
Lord, before whose wrath alone we tremble — His indigna- 
tion we alone cannot abide. We cannot and would not, if 
we could, debase His image vivified by His breath too holy 
for us, in obeisance to man's creations. We have spoken, 
have we not, brothers ?" concluded he, turning to his 
friends. 

They said firmly : " yes, his words, king, are our own." 

It was in vain that Daniel, at the risk of incurring 
the royal disgrace himself, interfered to save his endeared 
fellows ; Nebuchadnezzar was unyielding. The next day, 
on the level tract in front of the image they were declared 
to have insulted, a roomy furnace was erected in which the 
three Jews were to suffer. A countless assemblage gather- 
ed and watched, from early morning, the preparations : 
the piling up of the resinous fir wood not only within the 
kiln, but outside and over its walls as well. As soon as 
the king had taken his place, and lifted his hand, the high 
priest gave the signal, and in thirty spots, the torch was 
applied. The flames spread, met with its fighting tongues, 



DANIEL 263 

formed one whole sheet of red and yellow glare and, thus 
enveloping the heap of wood in one golden cloak, mounted 
in a pyramid. So far did it cast around its heat that the 
foremost lines of the crowd were in haste to recoil and 
placed more respectful distance between them and the 
blaze. 

The high priest gave a second signal, and all stopped 
their breaths for a moment as were lead forward the three 
doomed men, bound hand and foot. 

Daniel was closeted in his house, praying with all his 
heart and soul, and with tears in his upturned eyes and sobs 
in his eloquent throat, to the only Saviour of his dear friends. 

If the lookers-on were seized with horror at the sight of 
the condemned and shivered at the thought of a death so 
agonizing, the three themselves showed no feeling of terror. 
They glanced at the multitude, at the king — but not to yield 
to him at the furnace — but not in dismay or with shrinking, 
and up at the heavens, whero they had placed their trust : 
where trust, when placed, is ever answered ! 

Nebuchadnezzar — brave enough himself — might have 
softened at so much exalted courage, but the high priests 
had already spoken hastily and motioned the execution- 
ers to move on. To each condemned were two men, for 
they were too tightly bound to walk unsupported. They 
where dragged, then, towards the fire and as near as they 
could stand in the scorching circle, they waited, until the 
wind blew from them and, sweeping forward the heat and 
burning brands, left them a bearable tract to traverse. 
They hurried the captives towards the furnace, did reach 
the open mouth, but — at the very moment at which they 
pushed the three forward and turned to flee themselves 
the current of air changed, turned back, whirled round and 
round and, smothering their one short scream of excrucia- 
ting torment with its hiss and roar, left them dead on tho 



264 



THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 



baked earth, their clothes scorched off them, their hair frying 
under their melted metal caps, and their lifeless bodies 
caking in a coal black crisp. 

The spectators stared aghast. 

Meanwhile bound as they were, beyond possibility of 
motion, the three Jews had fallen headlong into the very 
radiant core of the incandescent enclosure of fire, where 
they disappeared from sight, being below the level of the 
spectators' dazzled eyes. 

Nebuchadnezzar, however, was on a raised throne, and his 
view, therefore, dominated over the interior fire of whirling 
sparks and leaping lances of incandescent and more strongly 
devouring flames. He saw, standing up, for he had sprung 
from his throne-chair in his amazement, the cords unloosen 
from the wrists and ancles of the three and perish in ashes 
before they fell to the radiant bottom of the consuming pit. 
But, he could not believe his sight — the three men — there, 
in the very heart, of the combatting lances of the igneous 
element — stood up erect and free, and, stranger yet, they 
were not alone, but a winged form was also there, a man 
made of flame, as it were. Not of the gross, impetuous, cor- 
ru seating, flame of earth, but a bright spirit, calm as pure, 
but resplendent far beyond the sun or stars: a heavenly es 
sence. 

The king stared. 

" Sirs ! exclaimed he, " were there not three men put into 
the fire ?" 

" Yes, my lord." 

" But I see four there — they walk about unscathed — and 
one of them — one is liker a god than a man." 

The breeze had fanned the piles outside the furnace wall 
so furiously that a layer of glowing cinders alone remained 
in place of the wall forty to fifty feet high, and it had also 
swept away from the front of the furnace (towards which 



DANIEL. 2 65 

faced the throne, situated purposely to windward), nearly 
all the ashes. Nebuchadnezzar, descending the steps of the 
platform quickly, and followed by a number of the atten- 
dants, walked briskly towards the kiln, which shone yet. 

" Meshach, Shadrach, Abednego ! come forth !" cried he 
seeking to peer into the network of lustrous rays. 

The people round about were astonished, for they could 
not — having been unable to see anything themselves — they 
could not help believing that their soverign had gone mad. 
But whatever their surprise then, imagine how they were 
deep in consternation and how thunder-stricken when — out 
of the inmost part of the dreadful brazier, at whose outer- 
most circles they had seen six men drop dead and be de- 
stroyed to ashes, stepped the three intended victims, the 
cords burnt off from them, it is true, but not a hair of their 
bodies warped even by the heat, and a smile on their faces. 
The thousands looked with all their eyes on the saved, and 
the soldiers had hard work to keep the excited, stormy mass 
from rushing to inspect still closer those men, on whom the 
usually irresistable power had had no conquest, even upon 
their perishable clothes, which, like themselves, were totally 
free from the smell of scorching. 

The priests confounded, shrunk away, their lamps extin- 
guished and their heads hanging ; the populace dispersed 
in wonder to spread their accounts of the miracle, while the 
king, greeting the delivered ones heartily, praised their 
Preserver, and, on the spot, in the hearing of their accusers 
and defamers, promoted them to higher offices. 

What he had witnessed, besides, had such an impression 
on his mind that he published a decree to alienations that 
he would be his enemy and deserving of sharceful death who 
should dare to speak ill of the only God worthy of the title, 
the one that had saved the three Hebrews. 

The days now passed pleasantly for Daniel and his friends, 
12 



266 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

their duties had become light and agreeable ones. With 
the exception of once, when Daniel was compelled, in truth, 
to tell the King what gave him pain. It was on this occa- 
sion: 

One afternoon, it being warm Nebuchadnezzar reclined 
on a divan near a window. The guards were in an outer 
chamber, talking in a low voice, not to disturb him, when 
they heard him call. Supposing some enemy had stolen in 
and was assassinating their master, they burst through the 
hangings which formed the door, sword in hand. They found 
the King sitting up on his couch, his hair bristling with ter- 
ror, his eyes out of his head and glaring, and his whole frame 
trembling like a shorn lamb in a chilly shower. They 
looked around, but he was alone. As soon as he could 
speak, he hastened to send for the astrologers of the capital, 
but, though this time he had remembered his visions, for 
that was what frightened him, they were not capable of 
unfolding its enigma. 

Daniel, as master of the magicians, had also been demand- 
ed, and it was while the other sages were at the height of 
their doubts that he arrived. 

" Hail, Belteshazzar," said the king, smiling with pleasure 
through his trouble, " in you is the more than mortal mind. 
No secret is secret to you. Tell me the meaning of my 
dream, which is thus : None of the learned of my whole 
capital, which encloses all that are wise of my realm, are 
capable to divine it, but you can do it." 

Daniel listened. He withdrew into a corner, and covered 
his face. Throughout the whole large hall, no one made 
a sound, ofcer than his suppressed breathing. The king 
himself, with anxious countenance, waited in silence if not 
without impatience. They saw Daniel's body shake with 
strong emotion in the earnestness of his supplications. 

" Nay, Belteshazzar," said the king, " never mind, if it 



DANIEL. 267 

costs so much. Do not let yourself be so agitated for either 
the dream or its interpretation.'' 

Bat Daniel, showing his face, calm, but only placid as is 
a sea after having been tumultuously ruffled by a storm, 
answered quietly : 

" Thanks, my lord, but the Father of the captives has 
been still again condescending to me. You say you saw a 
tree in the centre of the known earth, which grew and 
grew in beauty as in strength until it had lifted its head 
aloft above this footstool of the Most High and shadowed 
it far and wide ; while its plentiful leaves, with their top- 
most ones seemed to be putting themselves forth amid the 
very clouds ; and while it bore fruit which was nourish- 
ment to man, bird and beast. This tree, my lord the king, 
is you yourself, Nebuchadnezzar, who have grown, in your 
dominion, from one to the other confine of the earth." 

Nebuchadnezzar, with a countenance so relieved as to be 
nearly joyful, smiled proudly at this picture of his grandeur. 

But Daniel solemnly stretched out his hand to check too 
premature self-congratulation. 

" But," continued he in a tone deeper and more feeling, 
"as the great king saw an angel sail slowly down from 
heaven, and, when alighted, say : ' Hew down this mighty 
one of the forest, and destroy it, leaf, bud and branch, and 
drive away from it the birds and beasts.' This means, con- 
sider, my royal master : you will be reduced beneath the 
level of man, and scarcely will the beasts of the field per- 
mit your being by them. But as, moreover, the angel said : 
« But do not root up the stump, but let it be naked with 
the dew and rain, and unshaded, expose its remains to the 
sun, and let the days pass over him in misery !' so is the 
doom. My lord the king, the King of kings thus decrees : 
'if your sins shall not be redeemed by righteousness and by 
showing mercy to the down-trodden, soon shall the pro- 



268 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

phetic dream be reality.* But, whether you thus lengthen 
your peace and joy or not, still — inasmuch as the angel 
spared the stump — } r our kingdom shall continue in your 
race, under God's good and holy pleasure." 

Nebuchadnezzar thanked the prophet, and rewarded 
him. In many things, for five or six months, he showed 
that he had been penetrated to the heart by the heavenly 
warning, but at the end of that time, as his sleep and his 
wakening were neither disturbed, he slackened in his 
observance of well-doing. At the end of some twelve 
months, he was no better than he had been at the worst 
period of his life. 

He was strolling over the marble pavement through his 
Babylonian palace ; he had been in the treasure room and 
feasted his eyes on the piles of the precious metals in 
heaps and piles of bars and balls ; he had gone through the 
lower halls where a whole army of cooks at furnaces, 
ovens and open fire-places, were preparing all manner of 
fish, flesh and fowl, brought from distant countries by fleet 
running horses ; through the stables and houses for the 
chariots of war and the chase, where six thousand horses 
of all colors and sizes, of nearly every known race, ate at 
marble mangers ; through the armory of the royal guards, 
where, besides their weapons, were stored those of the 
king, such as spears for lion and leopard hunting, bows and 
arrows, swords, axes and spiked clubs ; he had seen his 
numerous pack of dogs fed, and had returned to dine. 
After dinner, he had reclined on his softest couch, to see 
the dancers, fair women and graceful youths, trace varying 
figures on the slabs of polished stone, to the sweet music 
from flutes and pipes. He had a grateful sleep, fanned the 
while by young slaves, and when he had arisen and drank 
an inspiriting cup of wine, he was, as we have said, pass- 
ing again the review of his magnificence. He was standing 



DANIEL. 269 

at the window, gazing on the many houses round about the 
palace, only less magnificent than it. 

" Oh ! ,r said he, " but Babylon is the greatest of cities ! 
I built it. Babylon is the house of my boundless kingdom 
for strength and glory. And my palace is the gem of it 
reared by my might and for my undying honor !" 

As the words were in his mouth, a voice not loud but 
still nnre piercing than the highest shout, not from any 
human being but from some invisible source in the air, 
breathed this sentence into his ears : 

"King Nebuchadnezzar, the prophecy is now fulfilled. 
Forasmuch as you have taken all the glory to youself and 
rendered none to the Giver, the seat of your might is vacant 
of you." 

When they sought the king at eventide, for the supper 
had long grown cold on the table without his expected pre- 
sence, he was found in the room, groveling on the marbles, 
and no word of sense could be obtained from him. He flew 
at them, and it was all that a dozen of the stoutest among 
the soldiery could do, to hold him and prevent him hurting 
his best friends, even his queen and his son, and himself. 
It was in vain that the physicians endeavored to cure the 
disorder of his mind, and at last, they could only say, as he 
would die if he was imprisoned and bound, that it would be 
best to try the effects of country air. 

The queen governed for him, while he was living at an- 
other palace away from the city. One day, while there, he 
escaped, with the cunning of madmen, from the view of his 
guardians, and, on their searching for him, they discovered 
him on all fours among a flock of grazing sheep and a scat- 
tered herd of cattle, plucking the grass and eating it like 
the horned beasts around him. He would not suffer the 
keepers to approach for some time, and it was not till dark 
that he could be prevailed on to enter the house. But this 



270 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

taste of outer air had increased his malady, and when the 
guardians came into his room next morning, he was gone : 
he had slipped through the window at the dead of night. 
They sought the royal lunatic on foot and on horse, but ail 
their researches were in vain. 

To fulfil the forewarning, King Nebuchadnezzar remained 
out of sight of his fellow-men in a hole in the woods, eating 
grass like oxen. His clothes were torn from him by briars 
or he stripped off the rags himself, so that on his nakedness 
fell unresisted the rays of the sun, moon, and stars, and dew 
and rain. So long did he remain devoid of reason in this 
mode of life, that his hair reached down to his waist as long 
in every thread as the largest feather in an eagle's pinion, 
and his uncut nails, when not broken, were like the claws 
of birds. 

But, at last, his overturned brain had its balance restored, 
and he left the wood for the nearest inhabited place, where 
the people joyfully received the monarch whom they had 
believed to be dead. 

The queen had cared for his kingdom in his absence, and 
he was restored to as much power and magnificence as be- 
fore. But he profited by the severe lesson which he had 
received, and issued a decree, repeating the one he had pre- 
viously published on the occasion of the wonderful deliver- 
ance of the Jews from the fiery furnace. In this he openly 
avowed that the Most High was of an everlasting reign and 
unlimited might, that man was nothing to Him, and he prais- 
ed, extolled and honored the King who was farther above 
him than he above the meanest under his sceptre. 

The shock to Nebuchadnezzar's mind, and the hurt to his 
body, reared in all kinds of sumptuousness and delicacy, by 
the protracted dwelling in the open air of a wild wood, had 
done much to shorten his life, and he survived not very long- 
to be the friend of Daniel. 



DANIEL. 271 

His son Belshazzar succeeded him. 

Younger, and not having known, except by hearsay, the 
proofs of a greater than earthly Ruler, he began his reign 
with the most unrestrained revelry. Orgie after orgie, 
wild freak after freak, made the palace echo with boisterous 
laughter, and made the citizens be in terror in their streets. 

In the most extensive hall in the king's house, he had 
had a long, long table spread with a most plentiful ban- 
quet. There sat down at it a thousand of his most eminent 
lords, before each of whom was set a golden cup, for so 
rich were the treasures of the Babylonian monarch. The 
wine was poured out with no sparing hand. At the height 
of the feast, when impiety, boldness of language, disso- 
luteness could go no further, Belshazzar beckoned an at- 
tendant to him. 

Soon after a score of servants came into the banquet 
hall, each bearing a salver, on which were drinking-vessels 
of patterns which were very unlike the Babylonian ones. 
When the goblets before the guests were taken away and 
replaced by these, all looked surprised and turned an in- 
quisitive eye on the smiling king, and some few, the boldest, 
laughed. In this laugh, the king himself joined, and he hast- 
ened to tell why the outlandish drinking vessels were so 
uncouth and what they were. The hilarity was universal 
when they heard that these were some of the trophies 
brought by King Nebuchadnezzar out of the Temple of the 
Lord at Jerusalem, which David had planned, Solomon had 
built, and which had been thus profaned. These were the 
horns used to hold the sacred oils, the wines of con 
secration and libations, the cups for the fat melting off the 
altar, and utensils for similar purposes. These, dedicated to 
worship, and only touched by chosen men with clean hands 
and the utmost reverence, were now in the jewelled and hot 
fingers of the rioters. This was the exquisite jest at which 



272 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

the laugh ran from King Balshazzar's wine-wet lips all 
round the halls back to him again. 

" Hark," said he, " are all the cup3 filled up !" 

" Yes." 

"In these vessels of the invisible God, we drink to the 
duration of his superiors the palpable, of stone, of metal, of 
wood !" 

The uplifted goblets, washed to the brim with priceless 
liquid, touched the profaning lips, and was set down empty. 

At the same instant, a flame covered one wall. Those on 
one side had it in their faces and, with dazzled eyes, started 
up. Those on the other, on glancing over their shoulders 
were equally alarmed, and, upsetting seats, dishes and cups 
in their affright, fled around the foot of the board. The 
monarch at the head, still standing up and the drained horn 
still in his hand, turned his eyes on the wall, and, while 
they were there riveted, he saw, in the midst of the fiery 
circle, a radiant hand holding a glittering stylet, draw on 
wall these words : 

" Mene, Mem, Tekel, Upharsin .'" 

The shining ring faded, the mysterious hand withdrew 
its lustre, but, unconsuming and unconsumed, the letters 
inextinguishably flared on the wall. All saw this, only 
Belshazzar had beheld the hand. He turned as pale as death 
and trembled in every limb, the sanctified horn escaped 
from his shivering fingers and rolled on the pavement. 

As soon as his white and quivering lips would obey him 
and he had staggered back to fall into his seat, he summon- 
ed the wise men. Aroused in haste, they came streaming 
in from their residences in different parts of the city. But 
they could not decipher the unfading inscription, and could 
give no satisfactory interpretation of it. This troubled 
the king still the more, and he frantically offered fabulous 
rewards to anybody who should prove himself able to reveal 



DANIEL. . 213 

the secret. All over the palace, the news of the flaming 
characters was spread, and the servants packed the corridor 
and peered into the great room, where Belshazzar with his 
uneasy countenance glared at the wall, the object also of all 
the other eyes. 

The queen mother was awakened by the confusion, and, 
on learning the cause, she hurried to the banquetting hall. 

" No one can explain those unearthly letters, you say," 
she addressed her son. " Do not be vexed in spirit any 
longer. There is a man in the kingdom who has a mind 
above man's. In the days of your father, the late king, un- 
derstanding the most clear was found in him. King Neb- 
uchadnezzar made him master of the magicians in all Baby- 
lon. As all the other men of science have failed, and have 
been compelled to acknowledge their deficiencies, let 
Daniel, or Belteshazzar as we called him, be brought before 
my lord. He will prove to have an excellent mind," con- 
tinued the queen, as the messengers were sent for the Jew- 
ish captive, " and to be skilful in resolving doubts, inter- 
preting dreams or showing family secrets." 

Daniel came before the throne. He had been told on 
the road of the reason of his being summoned at that late 
hour of the night. 

" You being that Daniel," said the king, " who are one of 
the captives brought back in the march of my late sire 
from the Jerusalem he had conquered, your fame has reach- 
ed my ears, and I believe that wisdom is to be found in 
you. You see — for it still glows unquenchably there — you 
see yonder letters on the wall. The hand that drew them 
there was seen by me — it was not earthly. There stand the - 
men of science whom I have had summoned, not one of 
them can unravel the mystery which those figures of firo 
enclose." 

While he spoke, Daniel was studying the inscription. 
12* 



JW4 



THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 



" But you can outdo them and unfold the hidden. If you 
do, you shall wear royal scarlet, shall have a golden chain 
of value and shall be next after my son : the third ruler in 
the realm." 

Daniel, his gaze on the inscribed wall as if it fascinated 
him, replied : 

" Keep your gifts, oh, king, to yourself, reward others. 
Nevertheless, I will give an explanation to my lord. Will 
my lord listen ? Your father Nebuchadnezzar, peace to hi 
shade, was given by the Master a kingdom, and accompany- 
ing honor and glory so that all nations round about his ter- 
ritory trembled in dread of him. At his will, the most 
distant could live or die, be lifted up or be cast down. 
But he grew full of pride, and came at last to think himself 
above all things. At that moment, not only was he de- 
throned, but his kingly mind was overturned from its seat, 
and he lived and ate but as cattle live and feed. So suffer- 
ed he until he felt that there is a God above, far, far above 
the earth and its dwellers. Though you knew this in its 
entirety, oh, Belshazzar, you have not humbled your 
heart, but have elevated yourself to strive to compare with 
the Sovereign over saints." 

Belshazzar's pale face flushed ; he was not accustomed 
to have such unpalatable truths spoken to his face, but the 
letters radiating on the wall which they burned upon and 
yet did not burn, were sufficient chains upon his anger. 
With a similar awe, the soldiers and courtiers were con- 
tained. 

Daniel continued, his attention enrapt in his speech and 
apparently careless of the lowering looks upon him. 

" You had outdone yourself in impiety, but still would 
do the crowning act of all. To the vessels of the true God's 
house, sanctified to his worship, you and your lords have 
dared to press unhallowed lips and from them quaff 



DANIEL 275 

profaning liquor all to the honor of gods of silver, gold, brass, 
iron, wood and stone, which are but so much lifeless stuff. 
But no praise or gratitude has been by you given to Him 
from whom is your breath and by whom is your eminence. 
That is why the hand of heaven wrote those words, which 
mean : God has fixed the end of your domains, which are 
finished : you yourself have been judged and have been 
found wanting ; and your divided kingdom will fall to the 
Medes and Persians without your gates at this moment — 
See!" 

As he spoke, a loud cry ran from the palace entrance to 
the banquet room, and, heralded by it, a man, with an escort 
of the king's officers, was hurried into the royal presence. 

" News, news, my lord," cried twenty voices in excitement 
too great to make them bear in mind respectfulness ; (i an 
army, said to be the Medes, under King Darius in person 
have overrun the country stealthily, and have surprised the 
first detachment of the guards at the river feeding the main 
canal." 

" Yes, my lord the king," said the man they conducted, 
and who had hardly recovered breath, " I killed my fleetest 
horse to come and give the warning. I passed many people 
on the road bearing their children and household goods to 
the capital for safety !" 

Indeed, the speaker was splattered with mud, his clothes 
powdered as if he had been riding hard. 

The monarch hastened to give out his orders, and the 
room w r as half vacant from the many who hastened to take 
commands of troops for the defence of Babylon, and to se- 
cure themselves, their families and treasures. 

" Stay," said he to the rest, and to some of them who had 
laid their hands on their swords threateningly against Dan- 
iel, whose prophecy had partly been so opportunely confir- 
med ; "justice must be dealt out, though Babylon should fall I 



216 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

command that Daniel, hereby appointed third dignitary of 
the realm, shall wear scarlet and a chain of gold. Heralds, 
proclaim this to the people. Now, captains, go !" 

But, all in vain were the most energetic orders, in vain 
the troops and citizens massed themselves on the thick 
walls and resisted the on-coming foe with missiles and 
sword. The warlike Medes found low spots of the inclos- 
ure, and climbing over their own dead, swept into the city. 
The guards fell one after another in the corridors, and, Bel- 
shazzar's refuge being penetrated, he was no more spared 
than the lowest of his defenders. 

King Darius the Mede took the throne. Over the con- 
quered country, which could hardly be ruled peacefully by 
strangers, he placed a hundred and twenty viceroys, over 
whom again were three superiors, whose head was one of 
them, Daniel. He had been chosen from the universal opin- 
ion of his unsurpassed merit. But his enemies, for he was 
not so fortunate as to be without some, were envious at Dan- 
iel's elevation. They numbered among them many of those 
priests and their relations whom he had had punished by 
the exposure of Bel the idol. They had had some success 
in keeping him in obscurity after the death of his patron 
Nebuchadnezzar, and on the accession of Belshazzar, but his 
present prosperity was a thorn in their sides. 

They held secret meetings, and corresponded with one 
another to find or devise some ruinous complaint against 
him, but Daniel had been so incorruptible and just, that noth- 
ing could be raked up in the past to injure his standing. 
He was so faithful to the new master, that the present could 
furnish no cause injurious to him. They waited some time 
and watched, but he was continually circumspect and kept 
in the right path undeviatingly. 

They remembered, then, how his friends had fallen into 
disgrace and in danger of death on the occasion of the gol- 



DANIEL. 2T7 

den image, and how Daniel himself no less religious than 
they, had only escaped their enmity by more careful and 
secret bearing. They could find no new means, and believ- 
ed that this old plan was worthy another trial. They drew 
up and put on parchment, these princes, viceroys, govern- 
ors and satraps, a statute which they read before King Da- 
rius and to which they requested his signature. As it 
merely decreed that for thirty days no one should ask a pe- 
tition of God or man except of the king himself under pen- 
alty of being put in the lions' cage, Darius made no delay to 
please these by making the writing law. 

Though Daniel was one of the first to know of the issue 
of this manifesto, he did not obey it as he had every other 
mandate of his new master. As usual he knelt in his pri- 
vate chamber three times during the day his face towards 
Jerusalem, to pray that the holy anger would be turned 
from his native place and to give thanks for the multitude 
of mercies and favors granted to him, the poor captive so 
wonderfully raised to such supreme distinction. He did 
not suspect that his enemies from a neighboring house-top 
had been all day on the look out for his actions in privacy, 
and that they had, through the window he had opened to 
see uninterruptedly the sky over the Holy City, noted every 
one of his acts. 

Not a moment did they waste, but, in an eager body, ap- 
peared before King Darius at nightfall and, by their leader, 
said : 

" Oh, king, in whose hands the sceptre of government is 
no less judiciously swayed, than is the sword of war valiant- 
ly iresistibly wielded, have you not signed a decree that in 
the lion's cage shall that person be flung who, in thirty 
days, should offer up a petition to God or man, except to 
your mighty self V* 

" True, " answered Darius, " and the ordinance has become 



27 8 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

one of the laws of the Medes and Persians, which are unaltera- 
ble." 

The accusers smiled to themselves, and in a louder voice 
resumed : 

" There is a man, my lord the king, who in defiance of the 
royal command has been seen by us to make his petition to 
something, God or man, not once not twice, but thrice 
during this same day. That man — " 

" Deserves the fate he has challenged," interrupted Darius 
heatedly. " His name — " 

" He is that Daniel called by us Belteshazzar." 

The king's countenance fell, but he had to send out the 
warrant for Daniel's arrest, against his will. He delayed 
and spent all the next day in trying to induce the accusers 
to withdraw their information against the chief viceroy, but 
fruitlessly. The day after the plotters assembled early and 
proceeded with their insisting on the carrying out of the 
penalty. 

" Princes, counsellors, satraps," said King Darius, "for the 
last time, I even stoop to you, who are my conquered sub- 
jects, and request you to take back your charge against 
Daniel so that I may grant him the pardon he deserves, for, 
upwards of sixty as I am and having been ruler my whole 
life, yet I never have set eyes on a servant more willing 
and faithful and wise. I, even I the king, ask you this." 

But the Babylonians shook their heads, and only a few 
withdrew from the rest in answer to the monarch's request 
saying : 

" My lord, as you have said, the laws, and he is condemn- 
ed by one, which are the Medes' and Persians', are unalter- 
able, not even the sovereign who makes them can unmake or 
even change." 

Darius frowned. 

" As you will. If that decree of mine is fixed, hark to 



DANIEL. 279 

the vow which I fix now, and it shall be as firm on my 
mere word of royalty as if my signet were attached. You 
who are merciless, shall find me without mercy. Enjoy 
your triumph, but beware I" 

They turned pale, but they were not in the least weaken- 
ed in their resolve. They even cheered one another as 
they followed the king into the courtyard of the palace. 
Daniel had been lodged there, instead of having been im- 
mured in prison, and he was now brought out to confront 
the king and his accusers. 

At the farther extremity of the court was a large grating, 
inside it, in a strong stone cell, made to resemble a rocky 
den, wftre the lions of the king Belshazzar, for these ani- 
imals, as being royal beasts, were almost things of necessi- 
ty in the household of a monarch. Every little while, at 
any sound from the unwonted number of people, one or 
two of them would climb up, look through the bars and 
roar savagely in disappointment, for they expected meat, 
not having been fed since two days. But Daniel, muoh less 
than any of the bystanders, was not in the slightest 
affected by the terrifying sounds. 

At the prospect of the quick satiation of their vengeance, 
the Babylonians hal recovered their spirits and hardly bore 
in their joyful minis at all the remsmbrance of Darius' men- 
acing speech. Reluctantly, the king gave the signal, and, 
first driving back the animals bv pricking them with long 
lances and red-hot irons, the gate was carefully opened, 
Daniel thrust in, and then quickly closed. Fearful that the 
king, in his favor for the victim, and judging him by their 
own treacherous selves, might rescue him, the accusers in- 
duced Darius to seal up the fastenings of the grating, and 
let them apply their own signets to the wax also. This was 
done. They had heard the growling of the lions rise and 
then fall into an ominous silence, and they retired, confident 



280 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

that, let Darius do his most, their work was already accom- 
plished, their enmity glutted, as the beasts themselves were 
undoubtedly with the prophet. 

King Darius was far from exultant like them. On the 
contrary he went into his palace almost mournfully, 
bidding them hush all the instruments of festivity. In 
stillness he passed the night ; he would not eat, and he 
could not sleep. Slowly the hours dragged by. 

Meanwhile Daniel stumbling into the pit, fell on his knees 
by the force of the thrusting in. He did not try to rise and 
vainly resist the long claws and teeth of the kings of the 
forest, which he momentarily expected to feel buried in his 
flesh. But though his flesh did creep when he felt the hot 
bloody breath of the beasts wafted over it and he heard 
them open their jaws with a dreadful snap of their sepera- 
ting teeth, he gradually so plunged himself into prayer that 
he all but forgot his dire peril. If he had looked around, he 
would have seen that the danger, if imminent, was, notwith- 
standing, perfectly withheld from him. 

True, the lions, hungry and savage, had at first only re- 
coiled with the fear they have naturally of a human being, 
but, the smell of their victim reviving their voracity they 
prepared to spring upon the kneeling form, growling and 
lashing their flanks with their tufted tails. But all of a sud- 
den an invisible circle seemed to be drawn around the 
prophet. At that instant, either in silence or with low, la- 
mentable howls, as if seized with a terror as violent and 
overpowering as could be, the lions and their mates not dar- 
ing to venture within the space enclosed from them, let 
their couchant forms sink, their sinews were no longer stiff, 
their bristling manes fell as if heavy with wet, their claws 
drew back within their velvety sheaths, their jaws closed 
with a snap of the tusks, over which the bloody lips cur- 
tained themselves, and they laid down in the corners blink- 



DANIEL. 281 

ing their eyes in semi-sleep, afraid even to level them fully 
uncovered on the man in their midst. 

Unable to catch the least repose, as has been said, the 
first gleamings of the dawn were no sooner penetrating the 
silken veil of the windows of the royal bedchamber than the 
wakeful Darius sprang off the couch, clothed as he was ready 
for going out. Alone, he went down the stairs, passing the 
sentinels, surprised at his appearance, and only delayed by 
having to have the keeper aroused to open the door into 
the courtyard. He went with swift step directly to the 
other end. 

No sound was to be heard inside the grating, except, per- 
haps, a low murmur, which was Daniel's praying, but which 
Darius with aching heart feared to be the beasts mumbling 
over the sundered bones of his most faithful servitor. He 
had to grasp the bars to support himself. 

At last, with an effort, but with his voice nearly inaudible 
from emotion, he faltered : 

" Oh, Daniel, servant only more faithful to your Heavenly 
than to your earthly master, has he whom you serve so 
steadfastly saved you from the lions ?"' 

The murmuring ceased. There was a total absence of 
sound for a space, really very short, but to the anxious 
monarch of long duration. Then, calm and clear, a voice 
responded from the depths of the darkened den : 

" Oh, king, live forever ! My God has deigned once more 
to lend his gracious ear to my supplications. His angels 
have closed the lions mouths, and no harm have they done 
me ; more than man have they respected innocency." 

With a laugh of joy, and a loud cry, Darius called his 
men, and in a few minutes, the seal was broken, the bolts 
shot back, and Daniel let out into the open air. 

The keepers asked if they should feed the famished lions 



282 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

now but the king said sternly and significantly. " Not now, 
1 will send the food." 

And against the entreaties of Daniel, who forgave them 
and sought their forgivness, King Darius commanded that 
the bloodthirsty accusers should be seized (which was done 
when they presented themselves that morning in hopes to 
see the living prophet dead,) and thrown from the compa- 
ny of man whom they dishonored in among the brutes whom 
they more beseemed. The lions, uncontrolled this time, 
bounded upon the wretched men as they was being pushed 
in, and before one of them descended into the cavern, they 
were all left corpses, half devoured or with all their bones 
broken. 

After this, not a cloud ruffled the increasing prosperity 
of Daniel the Prophet who resumed his station, unassailed 
by envy, not only through the reign of Darius the Mede, 
but under that of Cyrus the Persian. 



TOBIAS. 283 



TOBIAS. 



Tobit (one of the tribe of Naphtali, captured and brought 
away from Galilee by the Assyrian Shalmanesar,) before 
the war, had, differently to his fellow countrymen, who 
worshipped idols, gone regularly to Jerusalum to pay his 
devotions at the Temple. He preserved his fidelity even 
when his brother captives were compelled to live on such 
food as the Assyrians gave them, he taking care to eat 
only what his religion allowed him. His conduct led to 
him being chosen by King Shalmanesar as purveyor at his 
palace in Nineveh, and to receiving especial favor and 
reward. Thus he was enabled to leave ten talents of silver 
in the safe keeping of a citizen of Rages in Media. The 
disturbances in the country during the accession of Sen- 
nacherib prevented Tobit going to recover his money. 

He had always remembered God. He had done many 
acts of charity to his suffering brothers, sharing food, money 
and clothing, besides burying any Jews whom he saw 
flung shamefully on the plain outside of the city of Nine- 
veh. For this he was complained of, and he was forced to 
hide himself with his wife and his young son Tobias, while 
the disappointed searchers for him confiscated all his goods. 
But on the death of Sennacherib, the Jew was reinstated 
in a high position. 

With a father so piously good, Tobias could not help 
being witness to many admirable acts and hearer of many 
desirable counsels. This would have been as nothing to 
him had he not treasured them all up for his guidance in 
the life hardly yet opening before him, 



284 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

During the feast of the seven weeks, at which time 
Tobit was restored to his family, he, thankful at the new 
favor conferred on him, saw with an eye of acknowledge- 
ment the dainties set before him. Before he broke bread 
or cut meat, he said to his son : 

"Tobias, run out and bring in any poor man of religion 
and of our race whom you may first meet. The meal shall 
wait." 

Tobias willingly left the room and the house, but he sought 
in vain for such a person as his father desired. Not a Jew, 
alive was in the streets. The dead body of one, however, 
was lying uncared for in the market place, untouched for 
the present by the dogs on account of so many people 
moving about. He hastened back. 

" Father," said he, " I can find no guest. The only one 
of our fellow-countrymen I could at all see is a poor unfor- 
tunate man, whom they have slain and left in the square by 
the market. The dogs will be tearing him very soon, fath- 
er, for it is near dark." 

"Oh, well was it said by the Prophet Amos," said the 
father, " that our feasts should be turned into mournings 
and our mirth into lamentation. Come, Tobit — eat on the 
way — take a bit of bread, or, no ! poor boy, I will be able to 
do all alone as I have done before." 

He would not take the youth with him but went out 
alone. He found the body sure enough, but the people were 
still moving about and, when Tobit lifted the corpse, passed 
many censures and remarks upon him for his folly. 

"Anybody would have supposed that you were sufficiently 
punished under the late king not to transgress again and 
meddle with the carrion. The Jew dog does not de- 
serve Assyrian earth to cover him." 

None of them actually attempted to stop Tobit's labor, 
however, for which he was glad, and he, after dark, dug a 



TOBIAS. 255 

grave outside the city walls and buried the. unfortunate 
wretch. As, according to the laws of Moses, he for having 
touched a dead body, was forbidden to lay his hands on any- 
thing which would be contaminated, he did not enter his 
house that night but slept outside the wall of his garden. 
Tired out, he slumbered more profoundly than usual and he 
was not aware that the dew running down from the top of 
the wall, trickled over stones in which were metallic ores, 
and thus poisoned, falling upon his face and eyes, destroyed 
his sight. He woke up in the morning quite blind, and 
none of the physicians to whom he applied could cure him. 
He lost his situation, his little store of money was exhaust- 
ed, and, to support the family, Anna was compelled to take 
sewing to do for her people. Everybody knew of her hus- 
band's good deeds, both his countrymen and the Ninevites, 
and they all joined to help the afflicted ones by giving the 
wife and son employment and little presents. The righteous 
are never forsaken, nor shall they want bread. 

Some years passed and Tobit's eyes were still sightless, 
He did not murmur against heaven for his affliction as some 
might have been so foolish as to do, and did not consider 
that his good acts should have prevented any punishment 
like this great affliction from coming upon him, but cheer- 
fully accepted it as but a slight portion of what he, as a 
sinful man, merited. He was growing old, however, and he 
had been injured more than he could believe by the hard- 
ships of the travels of the captives from Jerusalem many 
months before. He thought that he was going to die. 

He called his son to him and gave him advice to guide him 
after his father should be taken from him. And the young 
man answered that he would ever cherish his memory and 
do his utmost to become a man such as he had been, would 
always love God, good deeds and his dear mother for whom 
he would gladly work at any honest labor. 



286 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

" Thanks, Tobias. Now, I can tell you something which 
will spare you much pain. You will not have to toil for 
your mother and yourself, at least from the first, as you are 
prepared to do. You will have much wealth in money, be- 
sides the unperishable treasure which rust cannot affect: the 
departure from sin and the fear of heaven. Here is a writ- 
ing which if borne to my kinsman Gabael at Rages in Media 
will procure you ten talents of silver which I placed for 
keeping in his hands long ago. Now, go out into the city 
and try to find a guide for the journey, for I would have you 
on the way while I am alive." 

Tobias, at the very door of the house almost, encountered 
a stranger, who, engaging him in conversation, informed 
him to his surprise and gladness, that he knew Gabael in the 
Land of Media, from having lived with him, and that he was, 
therefore, the best guide in the city. He hastened to retrace 
his steps and lead the man to his father. 

" Brother," said the latter, already pleased with the stran 
ger, for, most unaccountably, the latter seemed to possess, 
besides his frank, handsome because truthful countenance, 
an irresistible sweetness of voice. " Brother, may I ask you 
of what tribe and family of our poor scattered race, you 
are ?" 

" Do you, aged and reverend sir," said the stranger eva- 
sively, '* do you seek a chapter on genealogy, or a hired man 
as conductor for this son of yours ?" 

" No offence," said Tobit, " but it can be no harm for me 
to hear your kindred and name, brother." 

" I am Azarias, son of Ananias the Great, of your own 
blood." 

" Welcome, brother," said Tobit, half rising in his bed and 
holding out his hand, the shaking of which the stranger 
avoided by bowing respectfully. " Be welcome, and do not 
be angry that I should have seemed inquisitive about your 



TOBIAS. 28 7 

affairs. I knew your father well, and we often journeyed 
from Nap h tali to the Holy City together to carry offerings to 
heaven to the priests. He and his brother were true men, 
and they were not seduced into false worship like too many 
of our acquaintances. You are of a good race, brother. 
But, tell me, what wages shall I give you as guide. Will a 
drachm a day and all things necessary as if you were my 
son suffice?" 

" Quite," answered Azarias. 

11 And more, if you return safe, I will make you a fitting 
present for your faithfulness." 

Tobias prepared himself for the journey forthwith. Mean- 
while, his mother, grieved at the thought of his departure, 
while her husband was perhaps on his death-bed, implored 
the latter not to let him go. 

" Why should we send away our son, the light of our 
days, the staff of our weakening steps ? Why should we be 
greedy to add silver to silver. It is dross compared to our 
child. It is unearthed by men, he is God-given. So long as 
heaven lets us have breath, we have sufficient." 

" No, no, wife, pray do not lament," said Tobit, " there 
never was any fear of the lad, and there is none now with 
a kinsman of man's age and seeming experience as his guide. 
The boy is young, but he is able to bear the journey, he is 
God-fearing and, consequently brave, and — after all — he 
stands in the great hand of heaven no less when leagues 
away than by our sides. He will return in safety, who can 
doubt ? Dry your eyes and expend your breath in prayers 
that the Lord of the celestial hosts will let one angel be his 
guardian out of His uninnumerable ones." 

With the blessings of fatherland mother, Tobias left his 
home. At first, he. felt naturally saddened and he dared not 
even glance behind him for fear of tears coming into his eyes, 
but the change of scenery, the hopefulness and buoyancy of 



288 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

youthful spirits, carried him along as pleasantly as might 
have been expected. Besides, though his companion did 
not speak much, in fact only when he was addressed, he re- 
plied in an indescribably melodious and winning voice, and 
spoke as few men, if any, could speak. The two stopped 
at the River Tigris at about dusk and, after seeing that their 
little bags of clothing were safely put away in the room of 
the hostelrie, they went down to the stream. Tobias, as 
was the custom, went in to bathe. The guide would not do 
so, but stood on the bank. 

Suddenly — while the youth, who had swam out from the 
shore into the edge of the channel and was turning to come 
in — a dark tip of a fin, glancing like a metal blade in the dy- 
ing sunlight just above the gentle ripple, shot along down 
the current directly aiming at the bather. The guide shout- 
ed an alarm. 

" God save you ! Look !" 

The young man saw what was coming : a huge fish already 
unfolding its gates of jaws. He began to ply hand and foot 
to reach the shallows. To prevent his being tired out he 
propelled himself with all the varieties of swimming that 
he knew, now shooting out hand over hand, now going like 
a dog or other animal, and all the time splashing and beat- 
ing up the water besides shouting, to scare off the thing. 
But it was determined, and Tobias, everytime he. glanced 
hurriedly over his shoulder, saw that it gained upon him 
and, before he could make five or six strokes more, would 
be upon him. He was just commending his young spirit t<» 
heaven and breathing with his quickly-caught respiration * 
prayer for the old couple at home, little dreaming that then 
loved one was in such peril, when he saw the water growing 
lighter ahead of him and knew he was near a shoal. He 
made a vigorous essay and darted forward to touch bottom 
bo vigorously and quickly that the fish, which had plunged 



TOBIAS. 289 

towards him at the same moment, missed seizing him by only 
a foot or so. Tobias heard the water make a hideous sound 
against the closing teeth of the animal. He was on a patch 
of sand where the pursuer did not dare to bruise its belly 
and risk being grounded. He could wade at a fast pace 
now, and he believed for a few moments that he could reach 
the shore unharmed after all. 

" Courage ! Trust in heaven !" cried the guide on the bank, 
who had quickly undone the long strip of cloth that bound 
his girdle and had made a sort of rope of it, clumsy but 
pretty strong, and was now fastening a stone in one end of it 
so as to be able to cast it out. " Take care ! the water sud- 
denly deepens there !" 

Too late. Tobias, running forward as well as he could, 
(for it was very hard work to walk on earth that gave way 
for a foot or so to his feet and to have to cut through the 
wave which was mid-deep,) had already unexpectedly fall- 
en into the gully at the end of the sand bank and between 
it and the shore. The fish had sagaciously skirted the shoal 
and was already coming towards him on one side. He 
did not hesitate. He might have hoped to return, but he 
was not the one, though so young, to retrace his steps. 
Indeed he touched bottom before he believed he would. 
The fish, disappointed once, but too voracious not to run any 
risk rather than incur defeat again, came surging on at him. 
He seized it, one hand by the folds of skin over one eye 
and his thumb in the large socket of the flat ball, and the 
other hand with difficulty securing its gripe on one of the 
shining fins. Thus embracing it, just after barely avoiding 
the horrible jaws with their triple row of shining teeth, 
Tobias held on and tightened his grasp for dear life. The 
two, boy and fish, rolled over and over in the water, mud, 
and reeds, the great body bending to try to strike its an- 
tagonist with its powerful tail, whirling like a giant's whip, 
13 



290 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

In this awful moment, afraid to let his fingers loosen, 
afraid to retain them in such a tight clasp, Tobias yet had 
his mind sufficiently clear to offer up a prayer and again 
prepare his endangered soul. All his life, in varied pic- 
tures, floated before his immersed face, and all his existence 
was crowded into that instant. He was glad that nothing 
painful, no remorse, no regret, presented itself to embitter 
this moment. The only pain was the grief he already saw 
falling upon his parents. 

Providentially, the two floundered in towards the bank, 
and so near that the guide, who had his improvised cord in 
complete readiness by this time, made a successful cast of 
one end of its coils and entangled its convolutions around 
the fish's tail. As if lightning had benumbed it, its forces 
wiBre deadened, and Tobias, his strength reviving at so un- 
forseen an event, collected his energies at the same time as 
his thoughts and, by an effort, pulled the fish upon the 
shelving bank. Having sure footing now, he, with the aid 
of his companion, whose rope held firm, dragged the mon- 
ster well upon shore by the tail first. The cloth seemed to 
have immensely affected it for it had rapidly lost power 
from the first touch of it and died, with lustreless eye (for 
Tobias had destroyed the other in the contest) and parted 
jaws. 

The youth was sullied and scratched in many places from 
the rough skin of the fish, its sharp fin-points, and from the 
reeds, but, except that he was breathless and agitated by the 
triumph and by the thankfulness that accompanied, no injury 
was done to him. The guide, who tore his rope in half at 
the place where it had been wet and soiled, and who refold- 
ed the remaining, unmarred portion into a covering for his 
head, approvingly gazed on Tobias, who, washing himself 
first, had fallen on his knees to render up his acknowledge- 
ment of the signal grace which had been mercifully bestow* 



TOBIAS. 291 

ed on him. When he had enrobed himself, his companion 
who had already assumed a fatherly manner of command 
which ill became a servant (as he was) and yet which Tobias 
did not feel inclined to resent, though why was more than 
he could tell, desired him to cut up the monster and remove 
with ease its heart, liver and gall, which he was to handle 
and preserve with care. He did so, and they returned to 
the hostelrie. 

As they were on the next stage, which was to end at 
Ecbatana, Tobias, who had carefully put away the entrails 
of the fish in a bag which he carried, asked his companion 
for what reason he had requested him to keep them. 

" The heart and the liver," said he, " has its use, which 
you shall presently hear. The gall is a sure cure for filmy 
eyes, if they be anointed with it." 
Tobias started with joy, 
" Will it cure ray father ?" he asked. 
" It will" replied Azarias significantly. 
The youth regarded the speaker earnestly, for this was 
not the first time that the man had spoken strangely, but his 
features were impenetrable. He could only believe and 
walk on with a lighter step, now that he carried a source of 
such joy to his father, by his side. 

They encamped near Ecbatana, which they would enter 
the next day. The guide, before they fell to sleep., broke 
his usual silence to speak for some time in this wise : 

" I have a story to tell you, my young friend, and it re- 
quires your attention because it relates especially to your 
father's counsel to you that you should marry one of your 
race." 

Tobias was startled. 
" I have not told you," began hei 

" I know all, nevertheless," went on the guide unaffected- 
ly. "There is a young maid residing with her father, 



292 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

whose name is Raguel. Her's is Sarah. She has been be- 
trothed seven times, but each of her affianced husbands 
has died by means of an evil spirit, for they were none of 
[ them worthy men and heaven let them be so punished. 
! She is wise and fair. I will speak to her father that she 
may be espoused and wedded to you, for you are of her 
kindred and should have her." 

" But, brother Azarias," said Tobias, " if seven men have 
already died by her, seven indirectly, may not I make the 
eighth. I am the only son of my parents, and I would not 
for a queen bring the lives of my dear father and mother 
to the grave with sorrow because of me." 

" Do you not remember, Tobias," said the guide, " that 
your father bade you wed a Jewess. This one shall be 
given you for wife, and you need have no fear of the 
wicked spirit. For this is all you will have to do. Take 
ashes of perfumes and make a smoke with it and with 
some of the fish's heart and liver that you carry, and the 
demon will be powerless against you." 

And as they went along, his companion told so many 
stories of the goodness of Sarah, who patiently bore the 
accusations and reproaches which were heaped upon her 
because of the mysterious deaths of the betrothed ones, 
that the young man began by degrees to feel an affection 
for her. When they entered Ecbatana the next morning, 
they went straight to Raguel's house, where Sarah met 
them — making Tobias, already prepossessed, love her vehe- 
mently — and led them into the house. 

Edna the wife of Raguel on seeing Tobias, could not 
help exclaiming to her husband : " Row much this young 
man resembles our relation Tobit. Ask him." 

" Whom are you, brethren ?" inquired Raguel. 

" We are of the tribe of Naphtali, carried captives to 
Nineveh." 



TOBIAS. 293 

" Indeed ! Do you know a relation of mine named To- 
bit ?" 

" Yes, he is well, except that he has been blind for the 
last few years. He is my father," said Tobias. 

" You are son of a true and honest man, then," said Ragu- 
el, shaking his hand eagerly, " I am very sorry that he, of all 
men, should have lost his sight. You must stay here, of 
course, and you shall be regaled with our best, for we do 
not see relations everyday." 

They killed lambs and set all they had of delicacies before 
the two. At length, Azarias began to speak of what he had 
already conferred upon with Tobias. 

" Assuredly will I have no reluctance to give my daughter 
to my old friend's son. But he is a stranger here and may 
not know the truth. My poor daughter has been betrothed 
seven times, and " 

" And all those affianced men have died, I know it," said 
Tobias, respectfully interrupting him. I do not mind that. 
Let us swear and agree." 

Raguel called Sarah, and the ceremony was soon accom- 
plished according to the ancient law, and he and his wife 
signed the bond. They feasted, thereupon. As for the de- 
mon who had slain the previously betrothed seven, the 
burning of the heart and liver, forced it to flee, and not do 
the least harm to Tobias. The father had given him over 
for dead and had a grave made. He was overjoyed when 
he found the young man unharmed, and, in gladness, kept 
the wedding feast for fourteen days, having forced Tobias 
to remain there longer. In the meantime Azarias, who 
would not partake of the dainties placed before him, went 
off to Rages and received, on exhibition to Gabael of Tobit's 
order, the silver in bags, which he brought back in safety. 

Still did Raguel wish to detain his daughter and his son- 
in-law. 



2VJ4 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

11 No, no, sir, I must not stay longer," said the latter earn* 
estly, " it will not be enough for a messenger to go to them 
and explain my absence, for I must speedily see my father 
above all. Really, I must." 

He had not forgotten the fish's gall, promised to be a rem- 
edy for blindness, whose efficacy he believed all the more 
in from the heart and liver having fulfilled their mission so 
completely. 

" If you must go," said Raguel at last, " take Sarah and 
depart with our blessings. Half of my goods in bondmen, 
cattle and money go with her as her portion. God speed 
you. And, Sarah, remember to honor your new parents as 
you have ever done to your mother and me, and let me hear 
good news always of you." 

The journey of the return was undelayed by any accident 
and they saw the walls of Nineveh in good time. 

" Now, brother," said Azarias to Tobias, " let us two go 
before your wife and prepare for her coming." 

" The more so," said the young man, feeling for the gall- 
bladder, in his bag, that I have a gladsome duty to perform 

So they hurried on in advance. 

All this time the old couple had been counting the days, 
and when every allowance had been made for the journey 
and still Tobias did not return, their fears began to arise and 
strengthen every hour. 

" What can have detained them ?" one kept muttering. 
" Is Gabael dead ? Can the money be refused him ? Can it 
have tempted robbers on the way." 

" The boy is dead," murmured the other. " He would 
never have left us a great while unless he were dead. Oh, 
there is nothing I care for since he is gone. He is dead, he 
is dead !" 

During all those fourteen days which Raguel had entreat* 
ed Tobias to spend with him, the latter's mother mourn- 



TOBIAS. 295 

ed for him night and day, eating but enough to retain life. 
And, hoping against hope, she was constantly running to 
the door at the faintest sound, and eagerly scanning the 
street. And when, finally, she did see the young man, 
and the guide advancing thitherward she could hardly be- 
lieve her eyes, into which welled tears of joy and thankful- 
ness. 

" He is coming ! he is coming !" cried she, " my son, our 
son. And the good man who swore to care for him is bring- 
ing him." 

The guide had already instructed Tobias what to do, and 
when the blind father, stumbled to the doorway at the cries 
of his wife, he, having already torn a hole in the bladder, 
spirted the gall into the old man's eyes. The smarting made 
him rub them instantly, and, instantly, he fonnd that he 
could see. He fell upon his son's neck, weeping and 
saying : 

" Praise and thankfulness to thy ever-hallowed name. 
God ! Thou hast punished me less than I deserved, and have 
rewarded me now far, far beyond my deserts. I see my 
wife, I see my son." 

Sightless no longer, through the people of his acquaint- 
ance, who marvelled at the miracle, Tobit accompanied 
his son to meet the young wife. They celebrated the union 
in Nineveh for seven days. At the beginning of the re- 
joicings and festivities, Tobit called his son aside. 

" Tobias," said he, " see first that this faithful guide should 
not be forgotten. Let him have more than his mere pay." 

" Father, I was thinking of the same. I intend, by your 
leave, to give him half of all the cattle, money and bond- 
men which I received as dower of my dear wife, for I owe 
her to him, as well as the joy of my having healed you 
under God." 



296 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

" No less is due him," said Tobit, " call him." 

But at the first words which they spoke, the person re- 
plied : 

" Do not call me Azarias nor brother any longer. I am 
neither. I am one of the seven holiest angels, who are 
blessed to be let do heavenly offices. I am he whom men 
call Raphael." 

All around had already fallen upon their faces in rever- 
ence, for the mysteriously sweet voice of the stranger had 
increased its irresistible power. 

" I require no reward. Be grateful to our Master, ever 
good as He is great. Praise, glorify, magnify Him, for that 
which he alone could do and has done for you all in the 
sight of man. And, inasmuch as God's deeds are too pure 
to need concealment, and as it' is honorable to reveal His 
works to the worthy, listen. When your prayers, of each, 
and all, from Sarah's to Tobit's, went up to the mercy-seat, 
I was commisioned to watch over you. I was with you 
Tobit, when you left the table and food at all hours to per- 
form pious offices to the hapless dead who might have 
gone unburied saving for you. For I record all these 
things in a book. I was with Sarah and smiled upon her 
patience when idle tongues reviled her for what heaven 
permitted for its good ends. And I have been with Tobias 
since he knew ill from good, and has shown himself a true 
son of his father, in all those things, truth, piety, reverence, 
honor, prayer, gratitude, for eminence in which the All-Lov- 
er loves boy and man, girl and woman. All these days I 
have been with you. You have not seen me. Nor have 
you seen me of late, but the form of one of you human be- 
ings which I borrowed. I have not eaten or drank with or 
touched one of you. You cannot know that I am more than 
a vision. Think, then, what joys beyond imagination await 



TOBIAS. 297 

the blessed who earn the unsealing of their earthly sight 
to celestial views. Give thanks to the Universal Giver of 
good. I go to him that sent me." 

When, at last, heads were uplifted, the guide, the so call- 
ed Azrias, the angel, was gone. 

Tobit and his wife lived to a great old age and were buri- 
ed together. Tobias and his wife and children then left 
Nineveh and turned to Ecbatana to his father-in-law. He 
died there, having reached the age of one hundred and twenty 
seven years, during all of which he preserved his reputa- 
tion for eminent purity of life 
13* 



298 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 



JUDAS MACCABEUS. 



Some one hundred and fifty years before Christ, the few 
faithful among the Jews looked upon the saddest of sights 
for a lover of God in His majesty. The country around the 
Holy City of Jerusalem, and it itself, with the Temple es- 
pecially, was shamefully treated. The best were old 
through grief, and the bravest were dead or broken by oap. 
tivity. The priests had forgotten their most sacred vows 
in the most part, and their evil examples were only too 
gladly and too closely followed by the profane. 

King Antiochus, who had that unfortunate country with- 
in his provinces, to cap the hardships, issued a proclama- 
tion, which threatened the death penalty to whomsoever 
among his varied conquered nations should not abandon 
their peculiar rites and customs and conform in every re- 
spect to the Greek's religion. He placed strong garrisons 
in the places where resistance was to be expected and ap- 
pointed overseers to examine all accused of not complying, 
and compel them to obey. 

The Jews distinguished themselves above all others — as 
the truth deserved — in constancy to the never-dying faith. 
The old men, though, begged to save themselves from the 
tortures by their friends or to pretend to yield, answered 
firmly that if they — men of eighty, ninety, or a hundred 
years of age — turned to a new belief for a desire of longer 
life and ease instead of clinging to the religion which had 
brought them so much hope and joy, duriag so long, young 
people might misunderstand and have some feeble excuse 
for their following the venerable and shameful models. 



JUDAS MACCABEUS. 299 

No, they would rather suffer the worst that their pitiless 
fellow man might rack them with, than run the peril of 
meeting one stroke from the heavenly rod. So they died 
martyred. 

And the young, and women let themselves perish no less 
heroically. 

One poor mother, who was compelled to behold seven of 
her sons cut to pieces under her eyes, consoled them, ex- 
horted them to behave manfully as the first sufferer had 
done, and never ceased to promise them eternal bliss above 
for this speedily ended torment below. And not one of 
them, though breathing their last in resolution of soul, if 
in agony of body, equalled the calmness, hopefulness, im- 
moveable faith of the anguished mother. She met her death 
like a saint. 

As they could only expect to live by miracles who would 
not submit to the decree, those among them who were act- 
ive and energetic began to whisper about making a union 
for defence. 

Then rose up Mattathias, with his five sons, and called 
upon lovers of the creed (of whom he was a priest) and the 
country to prepare to die as became them, weapon in hand 
falling before the Greeks. This summons to revenge the 
desecration of the Temple, the slaughter of infants and 
greybeards, the spoiling of the nation, was circulated se- 
cretly against the coming of the officers charged to enforce 
the edict. 

The royal officers entered Modin that town, and issued 
their notices, serving an especial one on Mattathias in this 
wise : ; ' You are a high man, much honored in this place, 
and with many relations. Come you first and fulfil the roy- 
al mandate as all the heathen have done, even your fellows 
of Judah and in Jerusalem itself; so will you and your 
house be numbered among tlie loyal subjects and friends of 



300 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

his majesty the king. You and your children shall be hon- 
ored with gold, silver and other rewards." 

To which Mattathias boldly replied : 

" Though all the nations upon God's earth obey this king, 
and fall off from their sires' creed, I and my sons and my 
kin will never forsake the Laws and Covenants." 

A Jew, in the sight of all his countrymen, was incited to 
take the lead and go up to the altar established by the royal 
deputies for the Grecian gods' worship. When Mattathias 
unable to contain himself for fierceness of indignation, flew 
at the proselyte, killed him and the king's commissioner, 
and pulled down the altar. 

" Let him follow me !" he cried, " who would keep the 
Laws which have saved our fathers and will save us and 
ours." 

He and his sons fled into the wilderness, where a great 
number of patriots collected around them, bringing cattle, 
and goods, besides their wives and children, living in caves 
in the mountains. The deputy commissioner, succeeding on 
his predecessor's death, had forthwith sent to Jerusalem for 
a force to go out against the rebels, and before many days 
a numerous host was massed against them. It was the Sab- 
bath morning that they advanced against the Jews who, in 
respect for the day, would not offer any resistance, but crept 
far back into the depths of the caverns. The Greeks were 
afraid to enter into such unknown places after them, for one 
man there in the narrow clefts could beat back a hundred, 
and, ferociously determined on giving them a horrid death, 
they kindled great fires of brushwood and half dried grass, 
and, the smoke and flames entering the cavities as into an 
oven's month, the poor refugees were suffocated, whole fam- 
ilies dying in pain, their only joy being in hope of the crown 
of martyrdom and in the great favor not taken from them 
of dying together, father and .mother hand in hand, brother 



JUDAS MACCABEUS. 301 

and sister lips to lips, and children in one another's arms. A 
thousand souls thus were smothered in their innocence, pre- 
ferring to be corpses in witness of the wrongful death to 
profane the holy day. 

Mattathias hastened to convince the people that to fight 
heaven's battles on its own days, was not a sin. Thus they 
were found gallantly and valiantly confronting the foe on 
every day of the seven, and x their forces grew in strength 
as the Greeks increased their severity and cruelty. But at 
length, Matttahias died, for he was old when he entered on 
the strife, leaving as adviser, to the little band of patriots, 
Simon, his son, and as general, Judas, surnamed Maccabeus. 

Appolonius, the military governor of Samaria, to quell so 
dangerous a party, collected a powerful array of Gentiles 
and Samaritans and encountered the Israelites. But Judas, 
leading a chosen division in person, struck into the thickest 
of the combat straight at the opposite centre, penetrated it 
by the fury of his attack and its determination, and slew 
Apollonius with his own hand, taking from his death-stiffen 
ing fingers his sword, which he used ever afterwards. 
The enemy, being cut in two, took to flight. 

This success, while encouraging the revolt, sharpened the 
enmity of the royalists. Seron, who was the ruler over the 
Lower Syria, hearing that Judas, with a rather insignificant 
force, had come to a certain place to bring arms for his 
friends who contemplated an uprising, thought to himself 
that he would earn a great name and no less honor if he 
should have the fortune to surprise him. For that purpose 
he detailed a strong column to move under orders which did 
not show its real destination. This would, doubtlessly 
have come unexpectedly on the daring insurgent, for so 
well was the secret kept that none of the Jews, who, while 
pretending submission, conveyed intelligence of the utmost 



302 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

value to their people's champion, suspected its aim. But it 
providentially arrived that an apostate, who had entered 
the temple dedicated to victory, heard Seron offering up his 
prayers and asking divine assistance for the overthrow of 
the arch-seditionary. Hence, Maccabeus came to be in- 
formed of the project. 

Instead of attempting a flight which would'probably have 
ended disastrously he gave the word " forward " to his 
little command and came in sight of the also advancing foe 
at Bethhoron. 

" See the great army P* cried his scouts, falling back in 
dismay. " We, so few and weak, too, from being afoot so 
long, will stand no chance against their treble and five-fold 
ranks." 

But Judas stood up before all, a splendid soldier in his 
weight}'' armor and with his conquered sword in his hand, 
to point at the comers-on. 

" If we were man to man, perhaps we would be borne down 
by their weight in numbers, but we have the Spirit of the 
Lord of our fathers' battles to nerve our arms, the Lord who 
gave victory to Joshua and Gideon and countless others of 
his soldiers, in whose ranks I trust I am somewhere humbly 
placed. They come against us in multitudes of pride, hate 
and wickedness, we go against them like lions of Judah, 
poor in all but love for heaven, and our dear ones. On them 
then, and your cry shall be a conquering one : For the Laws 
ard Lives of the nation !" 

Inspired so as to forget the disproportion, the little 
troop, three paces before whose line strode Judas, rushed 
down from the highlands with the war-shout, met the ene- 
my at the base, fought till four hundred of them fell, put 
them to rout and slew as many more in the chase. The 
defeated Syrians ceased not their disorder till they were in 
Philistia. 



JUDAS MACCABEUS. 303 

This successful action belaurelled Maccabeus so that his 
fame spread to every side and reached, though the courtiers 
had endeavored to prevent that, to the ears of King Antio- 
chus himself. He was fired at the idea of permitting so 
great an insurrection to live in his state, and marshalled a 
formidable host to effectually crush it. He was compelled 
to go himself on another expedition, but he gave the charge 
of this to Prince Lysias, who took half of the standing 
army. The latter's orders were to overcome the Jews, re- 
move all the prisoners and put in their place strangers, 
dividing the ground and destroying all the artificial land- 
marks. This command to burn and slay was bruited about 
to the ears of the Jews at length. 

Seeing nothing but the appeal to arms remaining, they 
accepted it as became gallant men. They held a grand as* 
sembly at the old place of worship of Samuel at Mitzpai 
near Jerusalem, for the latter city was full of the enemy. 
They spent the day in public worship, hearing the laws 
read from the holy book, (which had been carefully secret- 
ed from the Macedonians, who left no stone unturned to 
find it to deface it with illuminations of their own gods) 
and imploring heaven to have mercy on the residue of a 
race once deserving of blessings and yet to be the same. 
And Judas, unanimously called the general, busied himself 
in forming an army around his nucleus of favorite soldiers. 

All were of the opinion that it was better to die in battle 
than to live to behold the calamities of the doomed nation. 

In the night-time, one of Lysias* lieutenants named Gor- 
gias, who had added Jerusalem's garrison to his division, 
picked out five thousand foot and a thousand horse of 
the best, and made a sortie by night, stealing along the foot 
of the mountains to fall upon the Jews unawares. 

But, meanwhile, Maccabeus had taken three thousand 



304 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

of his chosen, broken up his encampment on the hill-tops, 
and with them (while the rest pitched their tents in a new 
place and guarded the women and children) marched 
quickly on Emmaus, where a second body of the foe were 
posted, awaiting the coming up of Prince Lysias, with the 
principal force, which moved by short stages on account of 
the magnificence of the commander. Thus, while he avoid- 
ed Gorgias and his surprise, Judas surprised the other 
Grecians, and dashed his line against theirs before they 
could believe enemies and not friends approached. 

This army had one great defect in being the escort of a 
number of traders and their trains, who, relying upon the 
apparent certainty of the royalists being vanquishers, had 
brought a quantity of money and rich goods with them for 
the purchase of the captured Jews as slaves. As they ex- 
pected to buy of the soldiers and, therefore, deemed it ne- 
cessary policy for the hope of better bargaining to keep 
friends with them, they distributed to the inferior officers 
and the common fighting men much in the way of presents 
and drinks. Hence, without the careless chief command- 
ers being able to prevent it, had they tried, their com- 
panies were sadly in disorder by the daily dissipation. 

On this divided host, did Judas and his followers, bent 
on doing or dying, make a charge, which met with the 
result naturally to be foreseen. The mercenaries, instead 
of facing the foe resolutely, took advantage of its not being 
quite daylight, to rush upon the rear wiiere the merchants' 
goods were guarded, and make off with the treasure, little 
caring that they, the friends, took it when the assailants 
would be accused. Into this scarcely resisting mass, the 
men of Judas clove their sanguinary way. The carnage 
was such that the robbers of the traders were fain in their 
affright, to spring upon horses, mules, asses, camels, as 
quickly as they might and swell the line of fugitives. 



JUDAS MACCABEUS. 305 

In a word, Judas discomfitted them completely, with tri- 
fling loss. 

The flying ones were pursued across the plains, but, 
though not hunted at noon, they continued their running 
in terror till they were stopped by the vanguard of Lysias' 
troops, leizurely advancing, totally undreaming of such a 
defeat. While they were so arrested, their pursuers had 
returned to the camp they had been forced to quit, and 
would have plundered it of its riches, but that their leader 
prevented that. 

" Time enough," said Maccabeus, who had received 
news of Gorgias' out-coming, " be not greedy of the spoils, 
for another encounter is before us. See, the spear-points 
of a phalanx already glittering in the cedars crowning yon 
hills ! Take a breathing spell, and up the mountain like 
deer !" 

But Gorgias' men had seen the fire and smoke beneath, 
for some tents had been kindled from scattered brands of 
watch-fires, had seen the dead men, and the lion-banner of 
Judah floating above the conquered encampment, and had 
divined the whole. And on seeing the victors beginning 
to climb up the wooded slope, they hardly halted to hurl 
one flight of darts, but turned their backs in dismay, leav- 
ing all in undisturbed possession of the Jews. 

Then were the pillagers let pillage. 

Lysias, unable to rally a respectable army, did nothing 
more that season, except guard the towns. But the next 
year, he opened the campaign with an attack of sixty thou- 
sand choice troops against the Jews but ten thousand 
6trong. The latter carried the victory, and so utterly, that 
no more opposition was made to them for months. Jeru- 
salem wa3 abandoned to them except the high towers of 
Ophel, and the Jews gladsomely did their utmost to restore 



306 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

its profaned house of worship to a shadow of its pristine 
glory and purity. 

In the year of King Antiochus' death, he dying amid 
great agony as a punishment, perhaps, for his cruelty to 
the oppressed people, Judas distinguished himself still 
more greatly for warlike deeds by subduing such neigh- 
boring nations as had Jewish slaves, and rescuing his un- 
fortunate countrymen. The enemy had still retained pos- 
session of the tower in the upper part of Jerusalem, which 
— as the garrison sought to fling missiles upon and into the* 
restored temple — the attempt was made to destroy. Some 
of the renegade Israelites who had sought refuge in the 
towers from the just anger of their brothers who had re- 
mained faithful, managed to escape and have an interview 
with the new King Antiochus Enpator, who was but ten 
years of age. His adviser was the same Lysias who had 
been defeated so disastrously by Judas Maccabeus, and, 
when he heard these apostates complain of his ancient ene- 
my trying to take the fort, he was not at all unready to 
speak for the boy-king. 

Determined to win this time, Lysias came into the district 
of revolution with a mighty gathering of armed men, a 
hundred thousand foot, twenty thousand mounted, and 
thirty war-elephants. This army attacked several strong- 
holds of the rebels on their march. They were obstinately 
resisted at Bethsura, against which they vainly rained as- 
saults. The news of the besieged stoutly withstanding a 
struggle so unequal, came to Jerusalem. 

Judas was the first to take up arms and call upon others 
to form a legion whom lie would only too gladly lead to re- 
lieve their environed brothers. As the relief party were 
sallying from the main gate, they were startled by seeing, as 
if leading them, a being in white clothing over golden ar- 



JUDAS MACCABEUS. 307 

mor, who rode a snowy steed with a bit of gold. Then 
they praised God with one voice, and took heart, declaring 
their willingness to engage any number of opponents. 

The royalists started about daybreak, and moved to take 
up position at Bath-zacharia, marching with the heavy in- 
fantry and horse on the plain and the light-armed troops 
covering the summits and sides of the mountains. The shi- 
ning of the rising sun on the shields and breast-plates of 
brass and steel made the hills glisten as if lamps were 
burning underneath the foliage of the brush. 

The Jews had never faced such a force before, for num- 
bers and variety of components unequalled. 

Each wing was formed of seven or eight thousand cav- 
alry, differently armed with javelins, bows, and swords. The 
centre was the foot in solid columns. Before them sedate- 
ly walked the war-elephants, their sides protected with iron- 
sheeted leather of crocodile and rhinoceros hide, and iron 
plates on their foreheads. Each carried on its back, beside 
the Indian driver who directed them with his pointed stick, 
in a tower, some twenty men and an ample provision of 
missiles. The beasts had been made to trample upon grapes 
and berries to press out the juice and make them thirst for 
blood. Of a thousand was the cohort guarding each, and 
five hundred horsemen were also their escort. From the 
tremendous body of men and beasts, went up an appalling, 
confused sound, the blending of the weapons' clank, the clat- 
ter of horses' hoofs, the heavy tread of the earth-shaking 
monsters, and the hum of the soldiers' talking and singing 
in strange tongues. 

Undismayed, Judas gave his signal and, while his young- 
er troops dispersed to either side, to prevent the horse flank- 
ing them, he charged with his veterans on the enemy's left 
centre. They gave way there, after a stubborn stand, and 



308 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

fell back so as to let the elephants into the action. Two of 
the conductors of these beasts were instantly slain by the 
shower of darts upon them, and the animals turning at the 
roaring cry of " The Lion of Levi and of Judah comes ' 
make way !" could not be prevented rushing through the 
Grecian ranks, even breaking down a Macedonian phalanx 
and racing over the plain in affright in the rear of their 
army. The tower shaken by the motion, was quickly emp- 
tied of its men and projectiles and, its bands rending under 
the strain, it fell off before the animals, pierced in fifty 
places, dropped dead, their last hundred yards of run being 
rather made by their terror than by their fading life. 

Meanwhile the troops of Maccabeus had slain six hundred 
men at the cost of fifty and, had they pressed on in the direc- 
tion in which they were, they would have cut the great mass 
in halves and have greatly approached victory. But Judas' 
brother Eleazer, had been cool enough in the thick of the 
fight to look afoout him, and he had noticed that one of the 
elephants, which they were endeavoring to push on the 
right of the Jews, was larger than the others, and wore rich- 
er trappings. He believed that King Antiochus himself was 
in the gorgeous tower (though it was only a general,) and 
thought that here was a chance for the nation's work to bo 
finely done. 

" This way ! this way !" cried he, turning to the side and 
making some forty men face in that direction with him. 
" Down with the tyrant king I" 

He and his band began to lay about them furiously and 
divided men and horse up to the object of his diversion. 
There an obstinate resistance was offered him, and twenty, 
a full half, of his party fell by the thrust and cut. But tho 
rest, separated from their friends by a serried barrier of foe- 
men, thirty ranks deep, only were invigorated by the know- 



JUDAS MACCABEUS. 309 

ledge of no hope being left, no retreat, no quarter, and brave, 
ly put themselves in jeopardy to get themselves a name of 
glory Five on each side, and five at the back kept off the 
combatants who surrounded them while Eleazer with the 
rest flashed their blades in the air against the huge animal. 
It was maddened with pain, for its tender trunk was cut and 
slashed and almost powerless. It screamed and trumpetted 
the red drops being scattered in the air from the wounded 
member. The driver did not dare to make it move on, for, 
if he did so, it would, after crushing down the handful of 
Jews, roll in upon the friendly line. He was pierced with 
two light spears and the rocking of the tormented elephant 
gave him the greatest trouble to keep his seat. 

But the Jews were too few now to prolong the hopeless 
conflict. A hedge of long spears encompassed them, and be" 
tween each was a swordsman, who if killed, had two to take 
his place, Eleazer ere long, saw the last of his comrades falj 
on the heap of corpses of friend and foe, in which they stood 
mid-deep, and he himself, bleeding at every pore with 
countless wounds on his unhelmed head and pierced breast, 
was scarcely able to stand. He was striking mechanically 
when a plunge of the elephant, dying like him, cleared a 
slight breathing-space for him by driving back the foe. Like 
a flash, he sprang over the pile of bodies, fell on his knees 
under the gigantic quadruped and buried his blood-streaming 
sword up to the very hilt in its belly, Down came the im. 
mense carcass breaking every bone in his body, but he — 
with a smile and a prayer on his lips — was dead already. 

More than seven times had Judas made attempts to cut a 
way to join his gallant brother, but all in vain, for the surg- 
ing of the human tide against his rock of troops completely 
prevented that. The Jews, as he saw, had lost the day, and 
h© — w ith less opposition than he had hoped — drew off the 



310 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

remains of his force. They reached Jerusalem without be* 
ing followed, so severely had they punished the royalists. 
Bethsura surrendered on seeing him retire, for it had ex- 
hausted all its supply of stores. 

The royal army, with a seige train more formidable than 
any that had ever reared its many heads of engines against 
the Holy City, sat down before it. The Jews while fighting 
the garrison who occupied Ophel, fought also around the 
wall against the king, erecting machines against his, sallying 
out to burn the hostile towers with brands, and by other 
means held them at bay for a long season. Fortunately for 
the besieged, just as they were almost giving up hope, the 
royalists raised the siege, and made an armistice with them 
for the news had come of an usurper being about to take 
Antiochus' throne. This made him depart in all haste. 

The new monarch Demetrius having defeated, captured 
and killed Antiochus, did not heed the treaty but sent an 
army again to destroy the Jews. But Judas, the warrior, was 
still successful and utterly routed the enemy, killing their 
general Nicanor. This disgraceful repulse angered Deme- 
trius, and placing twenty thousand men under the orders of 
Bacchides, they appeared on the scene of the sedition. 

Judas was before Jerusalem with three thousand as all 
his force, which small number, to stand face to face to the 
legions of Bacchides, was greatly diminished by desertions, 
for fear of the disproportion, which lowered the supporter s 
of Maccabeus to a scanty eight hundred. For all that this 
would have daunted any man less valorous and venturesome 
and did really depress Judas, he nevertheless, proposed to 
the insignificant band to prepare for an attack. 

" We shall never be able — we will go down before their 
first opening flights of arrows," said they. " No, let us save 
oar lives like the cowards have done. We are too few." 



JUDAS MACCABEUS. 311 

" Not too few to die like men of religion and love of coun- 
try," answered Maccabeus. "Heaven forbid that I — I 
whose hand has never spared the heathen executioners of 
tyrants — would do such a thing as turn my back, which no 
enemy has ever seen, to them, if they be myriads. If our 
time be come, and pray God for whom we fight, that it is 
not, let us die for our all and leave no cause for a stain to 
be put on our honor." 

While he spoke, and influenced his men, the columns of 
Bacchides had left their tents and swarmed upon the plains 
to the sounds of their trumpets. The men on Judas' side 
no less unshakenly blew on their horns. It was like a few 
wasps responding to a whole hive of bees. 

Judas remarked that Bacchides and his chief officers were 
in the right wing, and to that way he turned with all quicks 
ness and force. Unlikely as the thing seemed, his little par- 
ty did actually set the mass to flight and followed closely up 
the hills around Mount Azotus. But the left wing chased 
him in turn and the fugitives being rallied, the broken army 
enclosed all the Jews, whom they destroyed nearly to 
the last man. The remnant who contrived to escape from 
the carnage brought the news of the disaster to their 
friends. 

Jonathan and Simon, brothers of the daring chieftain, 
went to the field to search for him. They found the Mac- 
cabeus' cold body scarred with broken heads of spears and 
barbs of arrows and striped with mortal gashes, kept near- 
ly upright by the many dead who had perished trying to 
cut him down. The sword he had wrested from Apollo- 
nius five years before in the dawn of his fame was gone 
except the handle and a few inches of bent, hacked and 
split steel which his stiffened hand held firmly yet at the 
throat of the dealer of the final blow to him. His cloven 



312 THE BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 

buckler had been flung from him some time before his 
death struggle. 

They carried the body away and all the faithful, all the 
lovers of the brave and true, mourned for many days over 
him whom they called and remembered, long after his la- 
mented frame had perished in the sepulchre of his fathers, 
Judas Maccabeus, valiant above all the valiant, the chief 
defender of the citizens, the leader in fact, as in name, of 
the host. 



THE END. 



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